So, that EPA spill in Colorado could cost anywhere from $338 million to $27 billion

From Hot Air:

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) royally screwed over everyone that uses the Animas River. As our former intern Daniel Davis wrote, a crackerjack* team from the EPA on cleanup duty near the Gold King Mine, which had been abandoned for 10 years, accidentally released 3 million gallons of contaminated water that had accumulated inside there. The discharge of dirty water was so great that it turned the river orange. Arsenic levels are 300 times normal levels, with lead levels surging to 3,500 times above healthy levels. In other words, stay away from the water.

Regarding the cleanup of this mess, it ranged from hundreds of million to tens of billions of dollars. American Action Forum cited the high-end cleanup scenario, where costs could soar to $16.3 billion. Yet, these figures were taken from projections conducted by the Department of the Interior that analyzed the costs of an oil spill in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the Arctic. Oil spills and toxic metals are different animals, but it provides a ballpark figure.

The mid-range cost projection is slightly better, slightly less expensive, but unknown variables remain.

This will be a long and ugly lawsuit. It will take decades to finish this.