There’s been a massive spill of toxic mine tailings into the Animas River in Colorado, “turning the water an opaque orange color reminiscent of boxed mac and cheese,” reports Newsweek. The EPA estimates over 1 million gallons of mining waste was dumped into the river. (See photo below.) More from Newsweek:

The wastewater released contains heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium, and aluminum, Ostrander said. The EPA is preparing a plan to sample private water wells along the Animas River valley to test for contamination, including mercury contamination, he said. . . By Friday morning, the plume of orange had made its way downstream and was eight miles from the northern border of New Mexico, the EPA said in an emailed statement.

I certainly expect that the EPA will levy a stiff Clean Water Act fine on the ExxonValdez Koch Brothers Dow Chemical Monsanto Ajax Mining . . . or whoever the irresponsible party is. As Newsweek adds: “But the EPA has not released information about what concentration of metals are present in the water, or how much a threat to human and ecosystem health the wastewater might pose.” Typical corporate secrecy and rear-end covering.

Oops. The party responsible for the spill is . . . the EPA!

The EPA says it was using heavy machinery to investigate pollutants at the Gold King Mine on Wednesday morning when it accidentally released an estimated 1 million gallons of mining waste into a creek.

I’m sure the EPA will fine themselves anyway. And pursue the same kind of Clean Water Act criminal charges against its officers as they do with private sector violators for this kind of “accident.” I thought “accidents” like this only happened to evil chemical and oil companies. I say start with an indictment of Walter Peck.