A congressional report reveals that the EPA lied and covered up their knowledge that the Gold King Mine was full of water laden with contaminants when they opened the floodgates in August.
Hays Griswold, the agency’s on-scene coordinator, wrote in an October e-mail to other EPA officials that he personally knew the blockage “could be holding back a lot of water and I believe the others in the group knew as well.”
“This is why I was approaching (the mine) as if it were full,” he wrote of the day of the Aug. 5 release at the Gold King.
The lying liars who lie had several warnings the mine would blow long before they mucked with it, but did it anyway and then created reports to cover their a$$.
Rep. Scott Tipton ripped into the EPA at a House hearing this week when the report was revealed, and said the EPA must face severe consequences for their deception and willful negligent.
“The EPA’s statements on how this disaster happened and who was responsible cannot be trusted. Now the EPA is telling the community of Silverton to trust them as the agency agitates for a Superfund site designation to clean up a mess caused by its own negligence.”
Shortly after the spill occurred, there were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around the Internet accusing the EPA of deliberately causing the spill in order to declare the mines near Silverton as a Superfund site.
And here’s what we now know: The EPA knew the mine was full and would blow, they opened it anyway. The spill caused a tidal wave of contaminants to flow down the river and into several states but the EPA said no harm was done.
The EPA now says nearly 900,000 pounds of metals was in the dump and wants Silverton mines declared a Superfund.
Tipton’s right, the federal agency has proven that they cannot be trusted, and asking the wolf to now guard the sheep with Superfund is foolhardy.
If Silverton goes through with the request, they are just asking for never-ending trouble.