A million gallons of wastewater from Gold King Mine began spilling on Wednesday when a crew supervised by the EPA accidentally breached a dam

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A toxic and orange-brown sludge spilling from a shuttered gold mine into a south-western Colorado river has reached northern New Mexico.

Toxic mine water accidentally released by EPA in Colorado river flows south Read more

San Juan County emergency management director Don Cooper said the plume arrived in the city of Aztec on Friday night and Farmington on Saturday morning. Officials in both cities shut down the river’s access to water treatment plants and said the communities had a 90-day supply of water and other water sources to draw from.

On Friday, San Juan County undersheriff Stephen Lowrance said: “It’s awful, it’s awful. It’s [a] horrible, horrible accident.

Of the water, Lowrance said: “You wouldn’t want to drink it – that’s for sure.”

About a million gallons of wastewater from Colorado’s Gold King Mine began spilling on Wednesday when a clean-up crew supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally breached a debris dam that had formed inside the mine.

No health hazard has been detected, but tests were being analysed. Federal officials said the spill contains heavy metals including lead and arsenic.