![]() ![]() “Abandoned mines sites are sitting out there in the tens of thousands, just in the West, and a significant component of them are releasing this acid mine drainage to receiving waters,” says Ronald Cohen, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines and at North-West University in South Africa. Mining was largely unregulated across much of the West until the 1970s, and today the tunnels of those mines lie abandoned and are often flooded with a toxic stew like the one the EPA accidentally unleashed from Gold King Mine on August 5. The EPA estimates that mining has already contaminated streams in the headwaters of more than 40 percent of the watersheds in the American West-and more problems are lurking below Earth's surface. While the colorful incident made global headlines, the situation on the Animas came as no surprise to environmentalists. ![]() The spill turned the blue-green waters of the Animas bright orange, and the gunk has spread from Colorado into New Mexico and Utah. ![]() Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accidentally released three million gallons of toxic waste into the Colorado waterway during efforts to clean up a long-defunct gold mine. The fouled waters of the Animas River are slowly clearing, but the widespread hazards posed by toxic mine waste will be with us for centuries. ![]()
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