One Year After A Toxic River Spill, No Clear Plan To Clean Up Western Mines

One year ago — on Aug. 5, 2015 — an EPA crew at the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of orange water filled with mercury and arsenic. The toxic spill flowed into the Animas River, eventually running into New Mexico's San Juan River and into Lake Powell. So far, disaster response and water quality monitoring have cost the EPA about $29 million — and the problem isn't over yet. Water laced with heavy metals continues to gush out of the mine, says Joyel Dhieux of the Environmental Protection Agency. That's why the EPA built a water treatment plant here last fall, at the cost of $1.5 million . "Five hundred gallons a minute is what we're currently seeing coming from the Gold King Mine," Dhieux says. "It's a bit of an increase, as you might expect with all the spring melt in the area." Five hundred gallons a minute is a lot. But Dhieux says this is only one of several abandoned mines in the area. Some have been discharging the same kind of water