“The competent approach would have been to drill a ‘cased’ hole (a borehole lined with steel pipe) from above the portal into an area behind the blockage…. The EPA/DRMS/ER crew could then use simple instruments to determine the water pressure and extent of water backup in the mine, before beginning to dig. This approach was actually suggested by professionals well in advance of the disaster.”

Information on Gold King and nearby mines was readily available as summarized in an informative article, topographic map, and schematic drawings by geologist David Briggs. He explains water flow and other relationships that the Red and Bonita and Sunnyside Mines may have with Gold King; discusses EPA pollution control activities in the area; and raises questions that EPA, DRMS, ER and EPA on-site coordinator Hayes Griswold should have asked before proceeding.…

“EPA and ER had simply ‘miscalculated’ how much water had backed up…. We were ‘very careful.’ The highly acidic, toxic flood was ‘worse aesthetically’ than in reality. Contaminants were ‘flowing too fast to be an immediate health threat.’ … The river is ‘restoring itself’ back to ‘pre-spill conditions’. We just need a ‘focused dialogue’ moving forward.

Can anyone imagine EPA or President Obama making such statements in the wake of a private industry accident? Just recall the hysteria over the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, Deepwater Horizon (Macondo) blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, PCB contamination in the Hudson and Fox Rivers, Duke Energy coal ash spill in North Carolina, and other accidents.”

Tom Sawyer would be proud. Rarely has there been a finer whitewash than EPA’s with the Gold King Mine disaster.…