WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are vowing to issue a subpoena to force the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to appear at a field hearing next week in Phoenix about a toxic wastewater spill that fouled rivers in three Western states and on lands belonging to two Native American tribes.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso said the Senate Indian Affairs Committee will vote Wednesday on a plan to subpoena EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
Barrasso chairs the Indian Affairs panel, which is conducting an April 22 hearing on the 3-million gallon spill at Colorado’s abandoned Gold King Mine. The Aug. 5 spill contaminated rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, as well as in the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute Reservation.
A federal investigation said an EPA cleanup accidentally triggered the spill.
