Before the Spill: Animas River, Durango, Colorado

Before the Spill: Animas River, Durango, Colorado
Fly fishing on the Animas River in Durango, Colorado in the fall.  

This is where the toxic spill happened in the past week; over 100 miles of river has been poisoned so far.

That toxic spill is what the "free market" looks like.  Mining companies are "free" to fail to set aside enough money to provide adequate cleanup, then go bankrupt, and the executives are free to do this knowingly and remain completely shielded from all liability. It happens over and over and over, all across the country.

So mines that were never really economically viable with cleanup costs considered are free to develop anyway, and the rest of the country is free to have the burden of the costs dumped on them (not to mention having toxic waste dumped in their water supply).

That's why there was a million gallons of toxic waste water for the EPA to (try to manage and) accidentally release in the first place... the market was free and unregulated enough to leave it there.

Such a spill could happen at a mine in Redding, California, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency operates a treatment plant that holds back millions of gallons of Iron Mountain Mine waste that could poison the Sacramento River, then San Francisco Bay.  It almost happened already (1997?).

And to think that some Presidential candidates want to eliminate the EPA, and simply let these toxic floods happen at random and with more frequency.  

How will the free, unregulated market work for you when your water supply is poisoned?  

#animasriver   #colorado   #durango   #freemarket   #EPA  
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