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US and Colorado reach proposed settlement over 2015 mine spill that turned Utah’s rivers yellow

 



Sunnyside Gold Corp. admitted no wrongdoing in the new deal for the Gold King mine sewage disaster.

(Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP) People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colorado in 2015 in water colored yellow following a mine waste spill. Colorado, the US government and a gold mining company have agreed to resolve a longstanding dispute over who is responsible for continuing to clean up the site.

By James Anderson | The Associated Press

| January 23, 2022, 4:25 p.m.

Denver Colorado, the US government and a gold mining company have agreed to resolve a longstanding dispute over who is responsible for continuing cleanup at a Superfund site that was created after a massive dumping of hazardous mining waste in 2015 that clogged the rivers with a sickly yellow sheen in Tri-States and the Navajo Nation.

The proposed settlement announced on Friday would spend $90 million to clean up the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site in southwestern Colorado, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Denver-based Sunnyside Gold Corp.

The deal must be approved by a federal judge after a 30-day public comment period.

Sunnyside, which owns property in the district, and the EPA have long fought for the cleanup. The EPA targeted Sunnyside to help pay for the cleanup, and the company resisted, throwing multiple challenges to the size and management of the project.

An EPA-led contractor crew was excavating at the entrance to the Gold King mine, another non-Sunnyside site in the district, in August 2015 when they accidentally punctured a pile of debris that was holding wastewater inside the mine.

An estimated 3 million gallons of sewage spilled, carrying nearly 540 US tons of metals, mostly iron and aluminum. Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, the Navajo Nation and Utah have been polluted. Downstream water utilities closed the water intake valves and farmers stopped drawing from the rivers.

The spill prompted lawsuits against the EPA and prompted the agency to create the Bonita Peak District Superfund.

Sunnyside operated a mine next to Gold King which closed in 1991. A federal investigation found that bulkheads to plug this closed mine had resulted in a buildup of water inside Gold King containing heavy metals. The EPA contractor initiated the spill while attempting to alleviate the buildup.

Under the agreement, Sunnyside and its parent company, Canada-based Kinross Gold Corp., will pay $45 million to the US government and Colorado for future cleanup. The United States will contribute an additional $45 million to clean up the district, which includes the Gold King mine and abandoned mines near Silverton.

The money will be used for water and soil sampling and to build other waste repositories. The EPA said in a statement Friday that it has spent more than $75 million on cleanup work and plans to continue major work at the site in the coming years.

Sunnyside has admitted no wrongdoing in the new agreement. The company said it has spent more than $40 million over 30 years to clean up its property in the Superfund District.

The proposed consent decree follows Sunnyside’s settlements with New Mexico and the Navajo Nation last year. In December, Sunnyside said it had agreed to pay Colorado $1.6 million to resolve its liability for natural resource damage related to the Gold King mine spill.

The Gold King spill is a stark reminder of the dangers associated with the thousands of abandoned and unclaimed hard rock mines across the United States, particularly in the West, said Tommy Beaudreau, deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior. , in a prepared press release.

The statement adds: Mining companies should be held accountable for those sites that put communities and tribal lands at risk of disastrous pollution.

Sunnyside said Friday’s agreement acknowledges federal government responsibility for its role in environmental contamination at the Superfund site, according to a statement from Gina Myers, the company’s director of reclamation operations.

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