Health risk report delayed at Colorado mining Superfund site
(Jerry McBride | The Durango Herald | The Associated Press) In this Aug. 6, 2015 file photo, Dan Bender, with the La Plata County Sheriff's Office, takes a water sample from the Animas River near Durango, Colo. after the accidental released of an estimated 3 million gallons of waste from the Gold King Mine by a crew led by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says it has almost finished reviewing hundreds of damage claims from the spill, but the agency has still not released a clear accounting of the claims made for economic losses and personal injuries.
Denver • The U.S. Environmental Protection agency has delayed a report on the human health risks of wastewater draining from southwestern Colorado mines.
The EPA said Friday it will collect more data and do more analysis after local health officials, toxicologists and others reviewed an early draft. The study was expected this spring, but the agency now says it will be fall.
The study is a step in developing a cleanup plan for the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund project, which includes includes 48 mining-related sites near Silverton.
One of those is the Gold King mine, where the EPA inadvertently triggered a spill of 3 million gallons of wastewater in 2015. Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah were contaminated.
The Superfund site was established the next year.
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