4 ms·

Refurb is referring to the EPA personnel created disaster near Durango Colorado of the Animas River. I suspect this is wrong think so he's being greytexted. The

Refurb is referring to the EPA personnel created disaster near Durango Colorado of the Animas River. I suspect this is wrong think so he's being greytexted. There are plugins that remove censoring from HN for those that gas. edit: link for the censors. please read the first sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_wate... "The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill was an environmental disaster that began at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado,[2] when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel, along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC (a Missouri company under EPA contract to mitigate pollutants from the closed mine), caused the release of toxic waste water into the Animas River watershed."

BigGreenTurtle 6y ago
It sounds like mining companies created a disaster aided by shoddy work from the state of Colorado who then asked the EPA to bail them out.
- ecommerceguy 6y ago
  Mining companies from the 1840's or maybe the rich white folk who moved to the area much much later should have researched before sticking holes in the ground.
rcxdude 6y ago
Reading further than the first few sentances, it looks like it was already an environmental disaster and a ticking time bomb for getting worse, and the EPA was attempting to resolve the issue (under significant constraints due to local politics). This seems a bit akin to blaming the bomb squad for an explosion.
- ecommerceguy 6y ago
  Having worked as a consultant in the area in the past, there is much more to the story. I'll summarize for you. It was fine until they started to muck around.
  - klyrs 6y ago
    > Prior to the spill, the Upper Animas water basin had already become devoid of fish, because of the adverse environmental impacts of regional mines such as Gold King, when contaminants entered the water system. Other plant and animal species were also adversely affected in the watershed before the Gold King Mine breach. This doesn't sound "fine" to me. They mucked about because the muck had already devastated the area.
    - refurb 6y ago
      They turned a 2/10 problem into a 9/10 problem.
  - mcguire 6y ago
    The perception of a problem is inversely related to the amount of income one gets from ignoring the problem.
ohyeshedid 6y ago
> There are plugins that remove censoring from HN for those that gas. You could also set 'showdead' in your hn profile to yes, and not need the third party software.
- ecommerceguy 6y ago
  I'll give that a shot. Thanks you for the tip.
mcguire 6y ago
And the second paragraph: "Contractors accidentally destroyed the plug holding water trapped inside the mine, which caused an overflow of the pond, spilling three million US gallons (eleven thousand cubic metres) of mine waste water and tailings, including heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, and other toxic elements, such as arsenic,[5] beryllium,[5] zinc,[5] iron[5] and copper[5] into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River and Colorado River watershed." Note the words "contractors" and "accidentally". Also note that the EPA has taken responsibility for the accident.[1] If you think this reflects poorly on the EPA, you may wish to have a word with the United States oil, gas, and chemical industries. [1] Yes, and refused to pay "on grounds of sovereign immunity, pending special authorization from Congress or re-filing of lawsuits in federal court."

BigGreenTurtle 6y ago

It sounds like mining companies created a disaster aided by shoddy work from the state of Colorado who then asked the EPA to bail them out.

ecommerceguy 6y ago
Mining companies from the 1840's or maybe the rich white folk who moved to the area much much later should have researched before sticking holes in the ground.

rcxdude 6y ago

Reading further than the first few sentances, it looks like it was already an environmental disaster and a ticking time bomb for getting worse, and the EPA was attempting to resolve the issue (under significant constraints due to local politics). This seems a bit akin to blaming the bomb squad for an explosion.

ecommerceguy 6y ago
Having worked as a consultant in the area in the past, there is much more to the story. I'll summarize for you. It was fine until they started to muck around.
- klyrs 6y ago
  > Prior to the spill, the Upper Animas water basin had already become devoid of fish, because of the adverse environmental impacts of regional mines such as Gold King, when contaminants entered the water system. Other plant and animal species were also adversely affected in the watershed before the Gold King Mine breach. This doesn't sound "fine" to me. They mucked about because the muck had already devastated the area.
  - refurb 6y ago
    They turned a 2/10 problem into a 9/10 problem.
- mcguire 6y ago
  The perception of a problem is inversely related to the amount of income one gets from ignoring the problem.

ohyeshedid 6y ago

> There are plugins that remove censoring from HN for those that gas. You could also set 'showdead' in your hn profile to yes, and not need the third party software.

ecommerceguy 6y ago
I'll give that a shot. Thanks you for the tip.

mcguire 6y ago

And the second paragraph: "Contractors accidentally destroyed the plug holding water trapped inside the mine, which caused an overflow of the pond, spilling three million US gallons (eleven thousand cubic metres) of mine waste water and tailings, including heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, and other toxic elements, such as arsenic,[5] beryllium,[5] zinc,[5] iron[5] and copper[5] into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River and Colorado River watershed." Note the words "contractors" and "accidentally". Also note that the EPA has taken responsibility for the accident.[1] If you think this reflects poorly on the EPA, you may wish to have a word with the United States oil, gas, and chemical industries. [1] Yes, and refused to pay "on grounds of sovereign immunity, pending special authorization from Congress or re-filing of lawsuits in federal court."