Congress drills EPA on mine spill
As part of a series of congressional hearings, outraged members of the U.S. House of Representatives grilled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and affiliated parties and asked the agency to take responsibility for the Aug. 5 acid water spill from the Gold King Mine that affected multiple water systems in the Four Corners.
The federal Science, Space and Technology Committee on Wednesday complained of negligence and lack of transparency to Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, who handles the EPA’s emergency-response actions.
Showing two separate videos, the committee also accused the EPA of tampering with video recorded onsite to remove audio of the workers’ helpless words of “What do we do now?”
Stanislaus said when blowouts occur, crews typically place a probe into the mine to pump water, but Ralph Abraham, R-Louisiana, dismissed this as a retroactive plan.
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