The secretary of the interior has been subpoenaed to submit documents to a congressional committee as part of a Republican probe into her department’s investigation of the .
was ordered Wednesday by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources to produce a long list of records and correspondences by the end of next week.
Specifically, the committee wants information about how investigators under Jewell worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to peer review the report.
The committee’s chair, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the Department of Interior has interfered with his requests for information on how the Gold King Mine report was compiled.
Bishop says the DOI has tried to block records showing the Army Corps of Engineers had “serious reservations about the scope and veracity” of the interior department’s review.
Army Corps records were also subpoenaed Wednesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency requested an independent investigation of the Aug. 5 Gold King spill by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation in the days after the disaster.
The review found the 3 million-gallon, EPA-caused release know-how and could have been prevented.
However, the report , which angered Republicans who subsequently called into question the breadth of the DOI investigation.
GOP members of the natural resources committee of the Bureau of Reclamation evaluation, sounding alarm about the facts therein and potential bias.
The committee showing the EPA employee overseeing work at the Gold King was aware of blowout danger at the site before the spill was triggered under his supervision.
The revelation came in contrast to the EPA’s claims ahead of excavation at the mine’s collapsed opening. That work ultimately .
The Bureau of Reclamation has repeatedly stood by its report.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul
