Animas River Spill Update

Last week it was reported that the Navajo Nation is has field a lawsuit against EPA along with several other defendants over last summer's Gold King Mine Disaster that released more than 3 million tons of mining wastewater into the Animas River. Field reporter Susan Allen shares more details.?Allen: " According to the complaint the Navajo state that "For nearly two days EPA did not call, alert or notify the Nation that this toxic sludge had been released and was headed into their waters and land. Now a year later, the Nation and the Navajo people have not yet had their waterways cleaned, their losses compensated, health protected or their way of life restored. The Compliant did not specify damage amount, but said it expected to be compensated for any future costs related to the incident."

This complaint follows the lawsuit that the State of New Mexico filed in May. They argue that the EPA's spill was far worse than reported by th agency and that EPA must be consistent in how it prosecutes those involved: either stop prosecuting private parties for "criminal negligence" or EPA needs to enforce the same laws agains their own senior officials. There has been no one held accountable for the Gold King Mine spill as of yet.