From the Denver Post

This is not about the EPA, it is however about a lax Congress and their neglect of our land. What are we leaving generations to come? What is the legacy of Congress and it's protections? It isn't good. I rather clean up the country's water supply and dangers to it then bail out banks.

August 16, 2015
By Bruce Finley

The opening of the Kohler Mine that has been bulkheaded August 13, 2015. Although bulkheaded, the mine is slowly leaking water that is making it's way into the Animas River....

Nobody tracks total discharge, (click here) likely equal to at least one Gold King disaster every two days — impairing rivers and streams

After the 3 million gallon Gold King Mine blowout, Colorado officials began scrambling to create a map of a problem they've known about for years: 230 other old mines statewide leaking heavy metals-laced muck into headwaters of the nation's rivers.

These old mines have leaked so much for so long, thousands of gallons a minute, that state agencies don't track the combined toxic flow. But by the estimates at sites where the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in, the overall discharge equals at least one Gold King disaster every two days — spreading cadmium, copper, lead, arsenic, manganese, zinc and other contaminants.

"We're not OK with any of this. We're not OK with contaminated water running into waterways," said Ginny Brannon, director of reclamation, mining and safety for the state.

"It is beyond our control. We inherited what we inherited. We took that, all those sites, and every year we steadily move forward with the goal of cleaning it up. We do as much as we can every year. We would love to do more. If we had the money."

The EPA has calculated that 40 percent of river headwaters in the West are impaired by acid mine drainage. In Colorado, state health officials Thursday determined that discharges from the 230 old mines have contaminated 1,645 miles of rivers and streams....