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EPA: No serious health risk from southwestern Colorado mines

By 06/20/2019 | updated 6 years ago
In this Aug. 14, 2015, photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater accident, in the spillway downstream from the mine, outside Silverton. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

DURANGO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says contamination from nearly 50 mining sites in southwestern Colorado doesn’t pose a serious risk for human health.

The Durango Herald reports that the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site assessment released Thursday didn’t find any risks to people working or hiking, hunting or fishing there.

However, it found a risk of exposure to lead or arsenic for children at four camping sites along the Animas River and at three mine sites used as recreational staging areas.

Most of those sites are set to be worked starting this summer.

The agency designated the Superfund site after it inadvertently triggered a spill at the Gold King Mine in August 2015.

The spill released 3 million gallons of wastewater, polluting rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

In this Aug. 14, 2015, file photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater accident, in the spillway downstream from the mine, outside Silverton.
Brennan Linsley/AP, file
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