EPA Chief Apologizes for Toxic Spill Affecting Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico
EPA Chief Apologizes for Toxic Spill Affecting Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico
McCarthy plans to travel to region on Wednesday amid criticism of agency’s response
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy apologized Tuesday for a mine spill in Colorado that her agency caused last week and planned to travel to the area Wednesday, amid increasing criticism from lawmakers about the EPA’s response.
Ms. McCarthy said at a news conference in Washington that she was still learning about what happened, responding to a question about whether the EPA was reviewing changes in how it cleans up old mines. “I don’t have a complete understanding of anything that went on in there,” she said. “If there is something that went wrong, we want to make sure it never goes wrong again.”
Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) said in an interview Tuesday he doubted the EPA had an adequate network set up in the region to respond to the disaster. “Something did go wrong, and here we are, a week later, and there still remains a lack of understanding not only with what happened, but what’s actually at stake in terms of public health,” Mr. Gardner said.
“The EPA’s initial response to this point has been slow and insufficient,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) said in an emailed statement. “Once we are through the immediate and emergency responses, we will all need to investigate how this happened, not only so that we can get answers about this disaster, but so that we can prevent it from happening again.”
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-chief-apologizes-for-toxic-spill-affecting-rivers-in-colorado-new-mexico-1439321379
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