The EPA fined itself $50,000 for spilling millions of gallons of mine waste into the Animas River last year and for failing to alert local officials to the water pollution flowing down river.
Just kidding.
The EPA filed suit against a private gold and silver mining company operating near Durango, and the owners of the Wildcat Mining Corp. are negotiating for a $50,000 fine. The EPA has accused them of dumping fill material into a gulch while working on a road, and building a wastewater pond on a mountain wetland.
Mountain wetlands in Colorado, who knew? We used to call it snowmelt.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the federal government to hold itself accountable for the spill, and to pay out the private sector claims and more than 65 federal tort claims against them.
It’s frustrating that the EPA still refuses to hold itself accountable, and even more infuriating that the agency continues to crack the whip on all private companies, sometimes for the slightest infraction.
But such hypocrisy is what we’ve come to expect from the Environmental Pollution Agency and the “transparent” Obama administration.