Hickenlooper TeethHaving tired of their apology tour through the Four Corners region blabbering that they didn’t mean to dump more than three million gallons of mine waste into the Animas River, the EPA is now dragging state officials into the blame game.

If true, it would certainly explain why Gov. Hickenlooper has been noticeably missing in action since Wednesday’s disaster.

Here’s the tidbit an alert reader sent us announcing today’s EPA conference call with the media, emphasis ours:

On Aug. 5 while investigating Gold King Mine in Colorado, EPA and State Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety triggered a large release of mine wastewater into Cement Creek. EPA is working closely with first responders and local and state officials to monitor water contaminated by the spill.

doh

 

So it’s no longer just the EPA who triggered the disaster, but the Hickenlooper administration as well?

That would explain why Hick just announced he’s giving the EPA a half-million dollars of Colorado taxpayer dollars to help clean up the mess.

Now that the orange plume has cleared the river in Durango and can’t muck up a photo op, Hickenlooper will finally make an appearance there on Tuesday.

We expect a full explanation then, governor. What did you know, when did you know it, and to what extent were your officials actually involved in causing this mess?

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez says she wasn’t even notified about the spill until a full day after the incident, and even then she didn’t hear about it from the EPA – they were notified by an official from the Southern Ute Tribe.