Some of you have certainly read about the mishap at the “abandoned” Gold King mine site in Colorado that left Animas River a peculiar shade of orange — here is a before and after picture that I nabbed from Reddit.
The basic story is that EPA is working to reclaim and shore up a historic mine site, and one of its contractors accidentally breached a dam that led to a spill of several million gallons of toxic water into the Animas River. The High Country News tells us nine things we need to know about the spill.
In the department of self-promotion, I also used to spend time thinking about cleaning up hazardous waste sites, and recently did a Q&A with PERC about the problem of abandoned mines. If you are interested in law & economics, or some of the knotty problems of environmental policy, consider taking a look. The abandoned mines problem could use some fresh thinking, that’s for sure.