Probe finds EPA error caused mine spill it hoped to avoid

BILLINGS, Mont. — Government investigators squarely blamed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for a 3 million-gallon wastewater spill from a Colorado gold mine, saying an EPA cleanup crew rushed its work and failed to consider the complex engineering involved, triggering the very blowout it hoped to avoid.

The spill that fouled rivers in three states would have been avoided had the EPA team checked on water levels inside the Gold King Mine before digging into a collapsed and leaking mine entrance, Interior Department investigators concluded.

http://www.abqjournal.com/663916/news/nm-news/interior-finds-epa-caused-mine-spill-it-hoped-to-avoid.html