Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
On Aug. 5, EPA workers turned the Animas River from looking like this…
Into this…
According to the EPA, a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment at the entrance to the Gold King Mine. Yada, yada, yada… they unleashed a few million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River.
In response, the EPA proceeded to… not warn citizens for about a day. And now they’re very focused on looking in charge, official, and telling us the water’s safe now.
These boneheads obviously didn’t learn their lesson from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. In it, Techno Global Research Industries unleashes toxic ooze on the environment, leading to the mutation of the turtles (and, I think, the rat too).
I doubt that’ll happen here, though. This ooze is composed of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals.
A little over a year ago, as part of my truck-loading job, we sometimes handled uniforms contaminated with cadmium. Officially, they were supposed to be sealed in protective bags before getting washed. Of course, sometimes they’d arrive to us torn open. Lovely stuff.
“You think it’ll give us superpowers?” I asked my supervisor.
“No. Just cancer.”
Fortunately… for many reasons… I left that job. (Coincidentally, it was in Colorado, the same state as this spill.)
Anyway, back to what the politicians are yapping:
“The indications are that the threat to the human health is returning back to pre-event levels, if not already there now,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said.
Oh good, we’re back to pre-event human health threat levels.
Rather than dwell on the dark humor in that statement, I’ll just move on to what The Hill reported: “The EPA… said it was encouraged by the new findings but wanted to verify the results itself before giving its blessing.”
Oh, really?
We’re still reveling in the first “blessing” the EPA gave us… by causing this disaster in the first place.
How about instead of a second blessing… we launch an investigation. One of those old-fashioned ones where people are fined… fired… and thrown in jail… and funding gets cut way down. Maybe a question or two about why private companies aren’t allowed more freedom to help cleanup efforts (as Chris Campbell reported in Spy Briefing Today).
By the way: If you think such an investigation is going to happen, I’ve got some Colorado river drinking water to sell you.
Here’s how it’s going to play out:
They’ll keep saying they “take full responsibility,” because that makes for a great sound bite.
And they’ll assure us they’ll do better.
Maybe they’ll even be so bold as to suggest we start a “national conversation” about how to improve water safety. Sounds like such a reasonable, responsible thing to do… while deftly bypassing the idea that the EPA should be punished…
Or maybe let the private sector get more involved in cleanup efforts. I doubt that will happen. As this article points out: “In the minds of EPA personnel, the agency represents the public interest. Since environmentalists and community activists also claim to represent the public interest, EPA employees view them, in a sense, as competitors. The instinctive reaction of these employees is to attack and eliminate the competition. Hard-core, loudmouth bigots are a small minority, but a much larger majority passively shares many of the same views.”
I’d also love to know how they decided the threat to human health has abated just because the river pollution levels have fallen. I’m no engineer, but I can’t help but wonder: Perhaps the reason the pollution has left the river is because it flowed… somewhere else?
Come to think of it, I’m sure we’ve got some environmental engineers reading this who’d like to weigh in. Or some folks who merely want to play one in a newsletter. What do you think the long-term consequences are of the EPA’s massive screw-up? Send us your thoughts at livingwelldaily@lfb.org
In the meantime, because we’re on the topic of water, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the new water pitcher we launched.
And I’m not going to make any claims that it filters out weird orange ooze. Please don’t grab yours and run to the nearest river.
It can, however, get rid of bad tastes and odors from tap water. That’s just the beginning of what it does. The real magic is how it can transform regular water into a powerful antioxidant. What it does to your body is beyond belief. Click here to learn more about it.
Regards,
Nate Rifkin
Underground Health Researcher
P.S. Yes, I am well aware mining can cause the buildup and concentration of these heavy metals in the first place. But government intervention doesn’t help when it merely opens the door for corruption. Think more government influence will solve that? Then all you’ll get is more corruption. Think I’m wrong? Here’s where to direct your ranting: livingwelldaily@lfb.org
