{"id":105654,"date":"2016-04-18T01:16:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T07:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bill-to-allow-quick-response-to-mine-spills-passes-colorado-house\/"},"modified":"2016-04-18T01:16:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T07:16:44","slug":"bill-to-allow-quick-response-to-mine-spills-passes-colorado-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bill-to-allow-quick-response-to-mine-spills-passes-colorado-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to allow quick response to mine spills passes Colorado House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Gold King Mine-exposed adit, which is about 10 feet wide and 15 feet high. The contaminated water flowed from the adit on Aug. 5, 2015.<\/span>Courtesy of Environmental Protection Agency<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 The Colorado House on Thursday gave final approval to a measure that would allow a quick response to emergency mine spills, such as Gold King.<\/p>\n

The bill would authorize the use of emergency funds anytime hazardous circumstances exist at a legacy mine site.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety is currently allowed to use the funds only if the site is subject to the division\u2019s regulatory authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important step to ensure we can take care of hazardous conditions at mining sites and protect our environment and public safety,\u201d said Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose.<\/p>\n

Legacy sites are hard-rock mining operations that were abandoned prior to July 1, 1976.<\/p>\n

The bill follows the devastating Aug. 5 Gold King Mine spill, in which an estimated 3 million gallons of orange mining sludge poured into the Animas River.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged fault in the incident, which occurred during excavation work at the mine north of Silverton.<\/p>\n

The EPA was hoping to begin restoration work, but instead caused a blowout that leaked toxic heavy metals, including lead, aluminum and copper. The agency is working on a Superfund designation, which would inject federal dollars into permanent restoration efforts at about 50 mining-related sites near Silverton. It also is working on water monitoring plans.<\/p>\n

It passed the House, 63-2, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

be available in emergencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[304,94,13,2461],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-river","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gold-king-mine-spill"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105654"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}