The mines in this region contained more than gold. The rocks were highly profitable. The mines were emptied of their wealth. The mines left already unstable geology more so. Then add to that water and there enormous hydrostatic pressure throughout the region.
Secretary McCarthy did not cause the problem. She is the most qualified to bring expertise to correct all that has gone wrong, including any input from USGS. The region is complicated, mined into instability, contains enormous amounts of water to provide hydrostatic pressure to the entire mining area.
While Secretary McCarthy carries out the clean up, she needs to relieve the private contractor and/or employees of their responsibility and bring in other departments including USGS to evaluate the entire region. I have to say the past owners are correct. The region is dangerous. The hydrostatic pressures will ultimately cause the same result if left to negligence. So, the continued clean up of these mines have to go forward. I am thinking USGS will be able to determine the best place to start to try to pump the water out and if there will be instability anyway.
The mines cannot be entered they are far to dangerous. So the work has to proceed with caution.
It is a mess. A complete mess that has gotten worse with time. This clean up should have been conducted a long time ago.
The difference between past administrations and President Obama's administration is that when the mines finally collapsed and poisoned the rivers anyway, Republicans would have said it was from too much rain or some other lame excuse. This clean up needs to be done and it has to proceed with caution to protect workers as well.
