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Utah’s Bishop, Chaffetz say EPA knew mine spill was likely but didn’t act

Colorado mine • House panels ask for documents from environmental agency, contractor who triggered the breach.

People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Two congressmen from Utah say that if the EPA knew Colorado's defunct Gold King Mine was likely to release contaminated water, it should have taken action — or at least done a better job of responding after a contractor accidentally sent 3 million gallons of mine waste into the Animas River last month.

Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz expressed as much in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, dated Monday, in advance of a joint House committee investigation into the spill.

The two Republicans — Bishop is chairman of the Natural Resources committee and Chaffetz leads the committee on Oversight and Government Reform — asked for extensive documentation on the Aug. 5 mine breach, which sent bright yellow, heavy-metal-contaminated water and sediment gushing into the Animas River. The waste then flowed into the San Juan River, reaching New Mexico and Utah's Lake Powell a few days later.

The letter requests all documents on, among other topics, the EPA's decision to work at the Gold King Mine, its vetting of contractors, communication with federal agencies, local leaders and citizens, and discussions of designating the Gold King Mine or other mines as Superfund sites. It also asks for all photographs and videos of the work at the mine, the spill and damaged areas.

Joined by Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., vice chairwoman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Bishop and Chaffetz say in their letter that internal EPA documents show the federal agency and the company it hired to work on the mine knew in June 2014 that a spill of mine waste was "an imminent possibility" and yet "has struggled to respond to the disaster."

The EPA initially announced that 1 million gallons of waste had spilled, a third of the actual amount, the letter says, and did not provide timely information to local officials affected by the spill.

The letter also asserts that the EPA asking a fellow executive-branch agency — the Department of the Interior — to review the spill raises concerns of the investigation being "susceptible to political influence" due to a lack of independence.

The three also sent a letter to EPA contractor Environmental Restoration, LLC — the company whose work at the mine triggered the spill — to provide "all documents referring or relating to the Gold King Mine," as well as information on any violations by the contractor since 2000.

Bishop, Chaffetz and Lummis request that all information be provided by Sept. 14 at 5 p.m. The two committees will meet Sept. 17 to discuss the spill and the EPA's response.

"The toxic discharge affected the environment in at least three states and disrupted the livelihoods of nearly every person and business in the surrounding areas," the letter to Environmental Restoration LLC states. "The full damages and long-term consequences of the spill are still unknown."

Attorneys general for the three states have discussed taking legal action against the EPA over the spill, and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a state of emergency last month.

President Barack Obama speaks to members of the media while on a hike to the Exit Glacier in Seward, Alaska, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015, which according to National Park Service research, has retreated approximately 1.25 miles over the past 200 years. Obama is on a historic three-day trip to Alaska aimed at showing solidarity with a state often overlooked by Washington, while using its glorious but changing landscape as an urgent call to action on climate change. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Barack Obama takes a boat tour to see the effects of global warming at the Kenai Fjords National Park, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015, in Seward, Alaska. Obama is on a historic three-day trip to Alaska aimed at showing solidarity with a state often overlooked by Washington, while using its glorious but changing landscape as an urgent call to action on climate change. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)