McCain wants criminal charges against EPA officials involved in toxic spill

From Rick Moran in the American Thinker Blog:

Senator John McCain wants to charge EPA officials with a crime for their actions that led to the disastrous release of toxic wastewater from the Gold King Mine last year.

The spill polluted 3 rivers and severely effected the lives and livelihood of several indian tribes.

The senator made the declaration Friday during an Indian Affairs Committee field hearing in Phoenix, Ariz. The hearing was titled: "Examining the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Unacceptable Response to Indian Tribes."

"I've come to the conclusion that a Department of Justice criminal investigation is merited and must now occur," McCain said.

He cited EPA employees' failure to conduct appropriate water pressure tests at the mine and adequately consult partnering federal agencies before excavating around the mine's containment plug, though they knew about the potential for a "catastrophic blowout.”

The spill "has devastated lands and livelihoods across Navajo Nation" McCain said in a statement. He said he is concerned about the EPA's "disregard for environmental issues in Indian Country."

I guess Senator McCain work up from his nap, finally!

Republicans Demand Answers To Gold King Mine Disaster

From The Daily Caller:

Republican lawmakers said Thursday they will conduct their own probes of the Gold King Mine disaster that poured toxic yellow waste into rivers and creeks of three Western states and the Navajo Nation. Republicans are doing this since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to launch a criminal investigation.

No one has been held accountable five months after an EPA order prompted a contractor to accidentally release three million gallons of mine waste toxins into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River. Members of Congress are ready to step in and take names, just as they believe EPA would do if a private company had caused the spill.

It's about time that someone in Congress holds the EPA responsible for the spill.

Senators want EPA workers fired over mine spill

From The Hill via H/T at Instapundit:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

So why is demanding firing of failed Government employees such a big deal? It was a common demand of President Bush. Alberto Gonzales, Michael Brown, Donald Rumsfeld, etc.

The Head of the Secret Service Resigned, so why shouldn't Gina McCarthy?

EPA’s Own Diesel Crimes Worse Than VW’s

From Breitbart's Big Government:

There is no question that Volkswagen should be in trouble for intentionally rigging its diesel engines to skirt U.S. emissions requirements. But EPA’s own diesel exhaust wrongs put VW’s in the shade.
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The EPA has for years quietly conducted flagrantly illegal scientific experiments in which diesel exhaust was pumped into the lungs of sick people and senior citizens. As pictured nearby, EPA researchers pumped high levels of diesel exhaust from an idling truck into a gas chamber where an unwitting elderly and/or asthmatic victim sat for two hours inhaling it.
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As EPA admitted in litigation with me, it conducts these tests because the agency’s claim about the lethality of diesel exhaust rests largely upon studies that are merely statistical in nature. The human testing is an effort to provide some evidence of biological or medical plausibility for the statistical studies. So, yes, EPA is trying to harm people in order to validate its dubious statistical data.

So as between VW trying to gain an unfair advantage over the competition, and EPA trying to kill people in order to validate its regulations, it would seem that EPA is the actual diesel exhaust villain.

Illegal testing of human guinea pigs by the Government. Does the name Tuskegee ring a bell? Add that to the bogus science regarding the Animus River poisoning.

We are in the best scientific hands.

Navajo Nation furious that Democrats have seemingly abandoned them over Animas River spill

From Hot Air:

In August, the Environmental Protection Agency, in their infinite wisdom, decided to let three million gallons of toxic water from the abandoned Gold King Mine contaminate the Animas River. The EPA was sent there on a clean up mission, as the mine had been abandoned for nearly a decade–and accumulating hazardous water waste as a result. All told, the arsenic levels in the river are now 300 times the normal rate, with lead levels at 3,500 times what is considered healthy.

The Navajo nation slammed the president’s inaction over the Animas river spill in Colorado that is threatening their way of life. House and Senate hearings over the spill are being held in Congress over this issue (via The Hill):

OF course this Regime will abandon any ally when they are inconvenient. It's all about the narrative.

GOP Rep. Demands EPA Chief Resign Over Mine Blowout

From The Daily Caller:

A handful of Republicans are demanding EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy be impeached for allegedly committing perjury before Congress this year, and now one GOP lawmaker is calling for McCarthy to resign over the agency-caused mine blowout.

“In the interest of fairness to the American people who have experienced the wrath of the EPA for much smaller… accidents than this, I think it’s only appropriate that you would resign as a statement of fairness for what Americans have experienced for much smaller incidents,” Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice told McCarthy in the hearing.

The hearing was examining the EPA’s response to a massive blowout of wastewater at the Gold King Mine caused by agency workers. State and tribal officials have been furious with the EPA’s slow response and lack of transparency in agency spill operations. Navajo officials have even threatened to sue the agency over the spill.

She needs to be indicted, convicted, and serve hard time for criminal negligence, perjury, obstruction of justice, etc.

Rep. Goodlatte Blasts DHS Sec.'s 'Hypocritical" Criticisms of Sanctuary Cities

From Breitbart's Big Government:

Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson’s recent criticisms of sanctuary city policies ring hollow given the Obama administration’s actions enabling such policies, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

“While I agree that sanctuary city policies are unacceptable, it’s hypocritical for Secretary Johnson to criticize sanctuary cities while at the same time refusing to take the steps necessary to end these reckless policies,” Goodlatte said Wednesday in reaction to comments Johnson made a day earlier.

Why is Rep Goodlatte surprised. It not as if this Regime has a history of lying to Congress. This Regime has told the truth about Fast & Furious, The IRS (Lois Lerner), the EPA (CO2, Animus River, Greenhouse gases), Benghazi, Dreamers, etc.

Mine Owner Calls EPA Official's Testimony At Toxic Spill Hearing Absolute Baloney of the Worst Kind

From Breitbart's Big Government:

Gold King Mine owner Todd Hennis is calling the testimony of EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus at Wednesday’s House Science Committee hearing “absolute baloney of the worst kind.”

In his testimony, EPA’s Stanislaus told the committee “[t]his [blowout] was a result of cave-ins and water build up. That’s why we were there at the time.”

But Hennis is pinning the blame on the EPA for the August 5 blowout of 3 million gallons of toxic waste from the Gold King Mine he owns near Silverton, Colorado. That disaster turned the Animas River orange for days.

“They [the EPA] blocked off the flow of water out of the drain pipes and they created the huge wall of water in the Gold King by their actions last year,” Hennis told Watchdog.org.

“They are calling it [the blowout] an act of God when it was an act of government,” Hennis added.

Just remember the EPA's and the Obama's reaction to the oil well blowout in the Gulf.

Democrat members of the committee repeated Stanislaus’s “act of God” excuse to justify EPA’s conduct.

Was it an "act of God" in the Gulf?

“Blaming EPA for the spill is like blaming firefighters for the forest fire,” Rep. Donald Beyer (D-VA)0% said.

But Dave Taylor, the retired geologist who predicted the EPA project that caused the spill would fail, has little patience for the lame excuses being offered by EPA officials and their Democrat apologists.

“More accurately,” Taylor tells Breitbart News, “the analogy should be that the EPA poured gas on the fire, by showing up unequipped and unprepared with no back-up plan.”

Congress would like a word with the EPA over that toxic mine spill thing

From Hot Air:

As I’m sure you recall by now, the EPA ran into a smidgen of trouble this summer when they went poking around in an abandoned gold mine and dumped three million gallons of heavy metal laden water into the local water supply out in Colorado. At the time I wondered if there was anyone who could hold the EPA accountable when they were the ones causing an environmental disaster. That seemed like more of a thought experiment than anything else because the EPA is supposed to be the ones policing such things. But now there may be a glimmer of hope. After stonewalling on all the questions being sent their way, the agency is being invited to come up to the hill for a little chat.

The focus on a toxic mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states shifts to Congress this week as lawmakers kick off a series of hearings into how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally unleashed the deluge of poisoned water.

Republican committee leaders in the House and Senate said EPA officials were frustrating their attempts to investigate the spill by withholding documents that could explain what went wrong when a cleanup team doing excavation work triggered the release of 3 million gallons of rust-colored sludge from the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

As this reports suggests, there are a couple of different angles being taken in the coming dog pile. The GOP members of the Science Committee are going to try to figure out why the documentation related to the Gold King mine has still not been released. As I’ve noted here before, the EPA isn’t generally sitting on sensitive national security documents which might endanger our readiness for a missile strike. In fact, the vast majority of their business involves things which are more likely to put you to sleep than alarm you. The fact that they don’t want to give up the goods seems to be a fairly persuasive indicator that there’s some serious butt covering going on here.

The exposure will do a lot of good. As a smart man once said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

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.

Mine owner tried to stop EPA from drilling, was threatened with fines

From Hot Air:

Hey, remember that time when the EPA blew a hole in the side of an abandoned mine and flooded the surrounding river basin with millions of gallons of toxic sludge? Ah… good times, my friends. At the time we wondered if they were going to fine themselves for all of the ecological damage they caused. Well, no such luck, natch. But there were some fines discussed. They came up in conversation when the mine owner tried to keep them from messing around with site. Todd Hennis had some experience with the EPA in the past and they had caused some similar leaks at another property of his. This time he told them he didn’t want them in there messing around, but they made their position clear. (Washington Examiner)
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If Mr. Hennis is correct, the earlier incident was far more egregious. The EPA had collected large quantities of sludge and dumped it down a shaft in the New Mikado mine without telling Hennis that they were doing it. The chemicals later leached into the local water supply. So is somebody going to investigate precisely what these EPA characters have been up to out there in the mountains? Senator John McCain has called for an investigation, but even if they do find that some serious skulduggery has been going on, what do they do after that? I mean, who do we normally call to investigate an environmental disaster and determine what damages, if any, are due? We call the EPA. Are we going to have them investigate themselves?

What could possibly go wrong?

So, who watches the watchers? and who will fine them?

EPA Fails to Acknowledge It Coerced Mine Owner to Grant Access

From Breitbart's Big Government:

The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t responding to claims by Todd Hennis, owner of the Gold King mine in Colorado that the agency coerced him to grant access to his property. Once taking over, of course, EPA’s incompetent attempts to remove debris created a massive 3 million gallon toxic waste spill from the mine.

Hennis told the CBS Denver affiliate that unless he allowed the EPA to have access and authority to conduct operations on the site the agency had threatened him with daily fines of $35,000.

The EPA is just so corrupt, it's just not surprising. Read the entire article for a short list of all the corrupt acts the EPA has perpetrated on small business around the country. I will only reinforce the idea that if the EPA is willing to lie about small stuff, can you imagine how much their lying about the big stuff?

Democrats and greens scramble to run interference for EPA over toxic spill

From Rick Moran at the American Thinker Blog:

Despite the EPA admitting error and taking full responsibility for the 3 million gallon toxic mine waste spill in Colorado, Democrats and environmental groups are working overtime to spin fault for the spill while claiming it's really not that bad.

“Blaming the EPA for #AnimasRiver spill is like blaming a doctor for the disease,” Conservation Colorado said in a tweet. Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar tweeted, "Focus of #AnimasRiver contamination should be on mining companies and their mining practices, not EPA, yes?”

The Sierra Club Rocky Mountain chapter posted a link to an article titled “9 things you need to know about the Animas River spill.” The list includes “The EPA messed up, but they’re not the root cause” and “This isn’t the first time this has happened, nor is it the worst.”

Most Republicans and ordinary citizens were having none of it.

Washington Times:

Colorado state Sen. Ellen Roberts, a Republican who represents Durango, said she didn’t appreciate the campaign. She said it muddies the waters amid the effort to determine what toxins are in the river and a plan to clean up of the spill.

“It’s clear that the EPA from the start has admitted that they were the cause of the spill, so I find this troubling,” said Ms. Roberts. “These groups — they’re trying to shift the focus. I think they have a different agenda.”

The Gold King Mine hasn't been active since 1923, so the idea of blaming the mining companies is ludicrous.

All you have to do is ask yourself who would the defenders of the EPA react if the spill was by, say, BP?

Oh wait, that has already happened.

Congress Investigates EPA’s Toxic Wastewater Spill

From the Daily Caller:

The EPA accidentally spilled millions of gallons of toxic wastewater from an abandoned mine in Colorado’s Animas River, and a top Republican lawmaker wants answers on just how bad the situation on the ground has become.

“It has been five days since the spill and the EPA has failed to answer important questions, including whether the polluted water poses health risks to humans or animals,” Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House science committee, wrote in a letter to the EPA. “It is concerning that the agency charged with ensuring that the nation’s waters are clean is reportedly responsible for the toxic water spill at Gold King Mine.”

Who wants to make a wager on the number of heads that roll?

With this Regime, I'm gonna guess, zero. They will all be promoted?

Media covering up EPA's responsibility for Colorado river pollution

From Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker Blog:

The Animas River in Colorado has been despoiled with million of gallons of toxic mine waste, turning the stream bright orange. Is this the result of a heartless capitalist? Hardly. Our purportedly all-caring, wise, and reliable Environmental Protection Agency is at fault. But looking at the headlines, you’d have a hard time figuring that out.

Remember, the Drive-By Media is nothing other than Democratic Operatives with Bylines.

Consider one of the latest headlines, from the local Durango Herald, reporting that the disaster is 300% worse than the EPA first reported: 3 million, not 1 million, gallons of contaminated water rushed from mine, EPA says.

3 million, not 1 million, gallons of contaminated water rushed from mine, EPA says

Readers have to go 17 paragraphs into the story before learning where responsibility for the heavy metal release lies:

The Gold King Mine mishap started at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when a crew working for the EPA accidentally triggered the drainage while investigating contamination at the mine, causing millions of gallons of sludge to surge into Cement Creek and into the Animas River, where the plume traveled downstream, making its way to Durango on Thursday evening.

My only question, how would the EPA and Drive-By Media react if the spill was caused by a company owned by the Koch Brother?

Millions of gallons of toxic waste water spilled into river by… the EPA

From Hot Air:

How often do we see sad stories such as this in the news? Evil industrialists carelessly create a swath of damage across our pristine natural resources through pollution and reckless destruction. Another such event took place in Colorado this week when millions of gallons of toxic, metal laden waste water were dumped into a local stream, feeding into the local river system used by swimmers and fishermen. And the culprit for this horrendous act was… the Environmental Protection Agency.

So who's gonna fine them? Would a private company get away with this? Let's look at the fines levied in the past.

Here’s a question for the government to consider. How much of a fine do you think the EPA should impose on itself? A farmer in North Carolina was sentenced to six months of house arrest and fined $15K for discharging water with cow feces in it into a local river. But that was just a farm. This was a mine. Well, in the Appalachian region, a coal mining outfit was fined more than $27M for discharging into rivers. Pan Am Railways was tagged with $375,000 in fines by the EPA for discharging into a river. And then there’s the granddaddy of them all… British Petroleum got nailed with $18.7 Billion in fines last month for the Deepwater Horizon spill. Obviously there’s a lot of precedent here.

Now, the EPA can certainly come back and argue that this was an accident. They were there doing their jobs and the damage was unintentional. But I have some bad news for them. Do you honestly think that BP was trying to dump millions of gallons of highly valuable product into the Gulf of Mexico just because the rig manager really hates tuna? That was an accident too, and yet they have to pay. So why not the EPA?

But, who would the EPA give the money to?

The people who make a living off the river? ................ Of course not, not a supporter of the EPA and not a Crony ally.