What she was the giant orange plume accidentally released by the EPA at a Colorado mine site floating by her property. (The Animas River at Durango, still mustard-colored Saturday night, flows at a rate of 360,000 gallons a minute.). As the polluted waste moves downstream, “it will dilute, but we don’t know what’s in this water”, McKinnon said.

Officials responding to the spill say they have finished building two containment ponds to treat the yellow sludge. “Needless to say, the health of our community and recreation-based economy depends heavily on water quality”. We’re trying to figure out what is going on and how to fix it. This is a vexing problem….

It was accidentally released on Wednesday into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River in San Juan County, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.

The team began collecting samples at the drinking water intakes for Farmington and Aztec to help New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) establish baseline conditions in the river. “If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them”.

“There’s not a lot we can do”. Don Cooper, emergency manager in San Juan County, said people should not panic because the EPA had told the county the spill would not harm people and that the primary pollutants were iron and zinc.

No health hazard has been detected.

Ostrander said the wastewater contained lead, cadmium, arsenic, copper, calcium and aluminium in “varying levels”.

Governor Susana Martinez, R-NM was in Farmington Saturday afternoon to tour the damage, eyeing the pollution from a helicopter. Ranchers, growers and homeowners rely on the wells, which are bored into alluvial sediments along the glacial-cut river valley. He said in a phone interview Saturday evening that he had freed up $500,000 in emergency funds to aid municipal water systems and conduct sampling. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.

A map showing the location of the Gold King Mine and Animas River in Colorado.

Still, the officials said they have no idea how much water remained in the mine.

Federal, state and local officials were first focused on addressing the EPA’s immediate response to the incident. “We’ll have to call the Environmental Protection Agency”. The abandoned mines in the area have long been a problem, filling up with acidic wastewater that leaches heavy metals out of rock and leaks into the river-a slow-motion environmental debacle. After the Animas joins the San Juan River in New Mexico, the remnants of the spill would then go into Utah, eventually reaching Lake Powell and the Colorado River.

The river was closed from the San Juan County line all the way to New Mexico, where the contamination was headed. Aerial photos showed the slow-moving yellow water snaking by scenic mountain roads surrounded by pine trees.

Heavy metals, for example, can be deadly for humans and animals that have been exposed in long-term situations.