Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is slated to tour on Friday along with Colorado’s top politicians — including U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper — though it’s unclear what the group plans to do on their trip.
The EPA declined to even acknowledge the gathering, with an agency spokeswoman saying she could not share details of Pruitt’s schedule.
Staffers for Gardner, Hickenlooper and Bennet confirmed the event but directed further questions to the EPA. A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said the congressman would likely also be there.
A spokeswoman for Hickenlooper said, “We are still working through details.”
The Gold King Mine was where more than 3 million gallons of wastewater by on Aug. 5, 2015. The release turned the Animas River a mustard-yellow color as wastewater moved down the river — through Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and land — and eventually reached the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.
Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press
In this Aug. 12, 2015, photo, the water of the Cement Creek is yellow-tinged as it flows down a valley just downstream from the Gold King Mine, where a wastewater accident several days earlier had occurred, outside Silverton, Colo. Farmers, business owners and residents initially said they suffered $1.2 billion in lost income, property damage and personal injuries from the 2015 spill at the Gold King Mine. The total now appears to be about $420 million after attorneys for a handful of New Mexico property owners slashed their claims by $780 million.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
An excavator works on digging through the toxic sludge that sits near Cement Creek and the water treatment plant for the Gold King Mine on Aug. 17, 2016 near Silverton.
Joe Amon, The Denver Post
Settling ponds at the beginning of operations for discharge water from the Gold King mine at the Gladstone interim water treatment plant above Silverton, CO September 27, 2016.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
The water treatment plant for the Gold King Mine is pictured below the mine on August 17, 2016 near Silverton, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
The Gold King Mine can be seen from an adjacent mountain on August 17, 2016 near Silverton, Colorado.
Denver Post file
The opening to the Kohler Mine along the Red Mountain Pass on Aug. 13, 2015. Although bulkheaded, the mine is still slowly leaking water that is making its way into the Animas River.
Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP
Dan Bender, with the La Plata County Sheriff's Office, takes a water sample from the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River.
Denver Post file
A worker from Weston Solutions walks next to one of the retention ponds at the bottom of Gold King Mine on Aug. 13, 2015 at Gladstone townsite.
Photo By Brent Lewis/The Denver Post
Crews work at two of the retention ponds at the bottom of Gold King Mine on August 13, 2015 at Gladstone townsite. Members of the EPA, Environmental Restoration, Weston Solutions and the U.S. Coast Guard are working on cleaning up the water in the four retention ponds and helping with the creation of the fifth.
Jerry McBride, The Durango Herald
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo. on Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill.
Geoff Liesik, The Deseret News via AP
Waste water continues to stream out of the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo. on Aug. 11, 2015. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich, made famous from the Oscar-winning movie bearing her name, visited the nations largest American Indian reservation on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015, to see the damage.
Brent Lewis, Denver Post file
A woman stands near the Animas River in Durango on Aug. 7, 2015, the day after the Gold King Mine blowout.
Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press
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In this Aug. 12, 2015, photo, the water of the Cement Creek is yellow-tinged as it flows down a valley just downstream from the Gold King Mine, where a wastewater accident several days earlier had occurred, outside Silverton, Colo. Farmers, business owners and residents initially said they suffered $1.2 billion in lost income, property damage and personal injuries from the 2015 spill at the Gold King Mine. The total now appears to be about $420 million after attorneys for a handful of New Mexico property owners slashed their claims by $780 million.
The anniversary of the disaster is Saturday. Colorado Politics first reported Pruitt’s plans to visit the site.
Gardner invited Pruitt to tour the Gold King in March, weeks after his nomination to lead the EPA was confirmed.
In February, when the U.S. Senate was still weighing Pruitt’s nomination, Gardner said Pruitt promised by the EPA and “fulfill the promises that were broken under the Obama administration.”
“He 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,” the Colorado Republican , standing before a photograph showing the impact of the spill. “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.”
Bennet, in a written statement, urged Pruitt to meet with communities impacted by the spill during his visit to the Gold King, which is just outside of Silverton in southwest Colorado.
“We hope Administrator Pruitt will coordinate with us to ensure these important local voices are heard during his visit here,” the statement said.
The EPA has designated the Gold King and surrounding mine sites . Crews have been working to stop toxic wastewater from flowing from the Gold King and the other portals that dot Silverton’s surroundings. Together, the sites leech millions of gallons of wastewater into one of the southwest’s most important watersheds each day.
Pruitt has been working to streamline the Superfund program and on how to improve the federal cleanup initiative.
On Tuesday, is suing the Gold King’s owners and the EPA contractors that caused the spill. , but the U.S. Supreme court recently declined to hear the case.
