Following the highly publicized wastewater release that occurred from an inactive Colorado gold mine, the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, in August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") has reportedly suspended cleanup and investigation activities at 10 mine sites.
The mining sites where work has been suspended reportedly include three mines in California, four mines in Colorado, two mines in Montana and one mine in Missouri.
Conditions at these sites are reportedly similar to those that led to the Gold King Mine wastewater release, which spilled approximately 3 million gallons of wastewater into Cement Creek while the EPA was excavating at the site.
Thousands of contaminated and potentially contaminated sites have been identified on lands managed by the federal government, but there is not a complete inventory of abandoned mine sites, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report published on September 11, 2015.
The EPA has faced harsh criticism for the Gold King Mine incident – and in the aftermath, it faces a large number of more potentially contaminated mine sites that may be on federal lands. The cleanup has a long way to go.
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