That drip, drip sound out of Washington is the EPA doling out dollars for the mess they created in the Animas River and Gold King Mine.
After politicians and local media including the Durango Herald and others called out the agency for refusing to pay for damages, the EPA pried open their wallet and pledged to fork over an additional $600,000. Not in damages, but for a warning system in the river to alert government when pollution flows their way.
Considering the EPA is getting ready to create a Superfund site upriver, a pollution warning system for when the feds muck it up again will come in handy and we applaud this move, whenever it happens.
The EPA says there’s no actual timeline for the warning system to be installed, and there’s no word on when Durango might see that $5.7 million payment for damages.
It’s likely that Washington is sitting on that big payoff until we get closer to U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s reelection in November, so the unpopular candidate who sat on his hands after the disaster can take credit for the payoff.
Too bad this wasn’t declared a climate change disaster, we expect that bill would have been paid posthaste.