Energy

Trump’s EPA Chief Will Do What Obama’s Chief Never Did, Visit The Gold King Mine

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Tim Pearce Energy Reporter
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt will tour Gold King Mine Friday, the site where EPA staff spilled three million gallons of wastewater in 2015, The Denver Post reports.

Pruitt will visit the site alongside GOP Sen. Cory Gardner and Democratic Michael Bennet and Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. The EPA has not revealed the aim of the trip.

Gina McCarthy, who lead the EPA under former President Barack Obama in 2015, visited command centers and victims of the wastewater spill, but she never traveled to the mine itself. The agency claimed the mine was difficult to access and McCarthy’s visit would hinder emergency clean-up operations, Politico reports.

The wastewater was accidentally spilled into the Animas River where it flowed through Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Eventually, the polluted water flowed into the Grand Canyon, according to The Denver Post.

“[Pruitt] assured me that he is going to make it right and that he is going to work with the people that EPA injured — and those who experienced economic losses — and make sure that they are fully compensated,” Gardner said in February shortly before Pruitt’s confirmation, The Denver Post reports. “He agreed to come to Colorado shortly after his confirmation to make sure that the people of Colorado know that he will fulfill the promises that were failed under the Obama administration.”

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