5 Other Mines at Risk of Spilling Toxic Waste
Many old hard-rock mines—not just the one in Colorado that tainted a river with orange metallic waste—have pollution problems.
A spill at a mine that turned a Colorado river orange and sent toxic waste barreling downstream 100 miles has many people wondering if the mining site in their town could be next. The answer from experts: Yes.
Last week’s spill of three million gallons of acidic mining waste from the historic Gold King mine into the Animas River north of Durango “was an accident waiting to happen,” says Jennifer Krill, executive director of Earthworks, a Washington advocacy group that works on environmental issues associated with the mining industry.
“There are a lot of similar disasters waiting to happen, at thousands of abandoned mine sites around the U.S.,” says Krill.
For instance, a year ago at Mount Polley
