The contamination has spread over 100 miles downriver, hitting New Mexico.

Toxicologists are calling the environmental disaster of the Animas River a “real mess”.

In an unusual change of roles, the top water pollution regulator in the U.S. has claimed responsibility for sending a flood of toxic waste into the Colorado Animas River last week. That waste has now moved all the way into Arizona and Utah and is diluting.

The plume is now working its way toward the San Juan River’s confluence with the Colorado River in Utah.

Though officials are still trying to understand the scope of the damage, as many as 550 gallons of water, according to some estimates, continue to gush per minute, turning the Animas River a mustard yellow. But residents and government officials in the area pushed back because they were anxious about the impact a Superfund declaration would have on tourism.

In addition to water testing, the agency is analyzing the sediment on the river bottom, which can accumulate toxic metals that fall out of the water, said David Ostrander, who is leading the emergency response in Durango, Colorado.

Parks and Wildlife spokesman Matt Robbins said Wednesday that biologists in Denver will determine whether the spill’s heavy metals accumulated in the fingerling trout.

For the past week, over 3 million gallons of toxic water have been flowing downstream. But as others have pointed out, there are various reasons cleanup at this and other sites has been complicated.

The agency also plans a survey of wild fish in the Animas and will compare it to a survey done past year.

Mother Nature is slowly cleaning a Colorado river that was polluted by an old mine.

Hickenlooper said that the state was going to do everything it can to support local businesses that have suffered.

Washington Times opines that the spill is a reminder of BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, after which President Obama said he was looking for someone’s “ass to kick”.

None of this passing of the political buck has diluted the ire or quelled the concerns of Southwesterners depending on the Animas, San Juan, and Colorado River waters for their survival. She says New Mexicans deserve to know the long-term effects the disaster will have on downstream communities.

“It’s completely irresponsible for the EPA not to have informed New Mexico immediately”.

“We came out here together, and we looked at the river and we cried”, said Rosemary Hart in neighboring New Mexico.

“I am absolutely deeply sorry this ever happened”, Ms. McCarthy said during a news conference.

She says the agency takes full responsibility after an EPA-led crew accidentally released the wastewater laced with heavy metals, including lead and arsenic.

Preliminary tests show the water quality is returning to where it was in Durango, Colorado, before the accident. It washed down the river and is believed to have passed into Utah, but it’s hard to detect because it’s been diluted.

She added that “the most important effort that we are ensuring right away is the health and safety of the residents and the visitors near that river”.