{"id":105899,"date":"2016-04-04T02:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T08:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-attorney-general-cynthia-coffman-questioned-over-gold-king\/"},"modified":"2016-04-04T02:49:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T08:49:45","slug":"colorado-attorney-general-cynthia-coffman-questioned-over-gold-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-attorney-general-cynthia-coffman-questioned-over-gold-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman questioned over Gold King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:7365546e-5174-4a7f-9d86-d851f457ce6a --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AXK2S31KYSY\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>DENVER \u2013 Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is preparing defensive and offensive strategies to legal disputes in the wake of the Gold King Mine spill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t foreclosed the option of litigation,\u201d Coffman, a Republican, told The Durango Herald this week in an interview at her Denver office.<\/p>\n<p>The downstream states of New Mexico and Utah have put Colorado and the Environmental Protection Agency on notice that a lawsuit could come.<\/p>\n<p>The impetus is a toxic spill, in which an estimated 3 million gallons of mining sludge poured into the Animas River on Aug. 5, 2015, flowing into the San Juan River in New Mexico and Utah. The Animas River tested for initial spikes in heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, copper and aluminum.<\/p>\n<p>While the EPA has acknowledged fault in the incident, Colorado could bear responsibility as the spill, north of Silverton, occurred within the state\u2019s boundaries.<\/p>\n<p>Some observers wonder why Coffman hasn\u2019t sued the EPA, which admits that excavation during restoration work led to the blowout. Also, there are accounts that the agency knew a blowout was possible.<\/p>\n<p>Coffman says she is not shy about suing federal agencies, having joined the state in three lawsuits, including most recently over implementation of EPA carbon standards, known as the Clean Power Plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we have here is a totally different animal because we have an environmental incident, whether accidental or intentional, whatever you want to call it, that requires a totally different approach,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n<p>A litany of questions remain unanswered, including the state\u2019s role in the blowout.<\/p>\n<p>Conflicting reports have cast shadows over the conversation, and a fact-finding mission by Congress has at times become controversial, resulting in the House Committee on Natural Resources issuing subpoenas to federal officials.<\/p>\n<p>An internal investigation by the EPA, released on Aug. 24, determined that the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety agreed to put drainage piping through the entrance of the mine, contributing to the spill.<\/p>\n<p>But former Colorado Department of Natural Resources Director Mike King wrote in response:  \u201cDRMS did not have any authority to manage, assess, or approve any work at the Gold King Mine \u2026 Operations at Gold King were entirely under EPA management using EPA contractors on an EPA response action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of what we\u2019re experiencing right now with different folks giving different accounts is probably typical of human nature,\u201d Coffman said. \u201cEverybody was at the same scene, but they saw different things and experienced it in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It may come down to depositions to collect all the facts, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAm I prepared to apportion who has what liability? I\u2019m not. I don\u2019t feel like we know enough,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n<p>If lawsuits are filed, they\u2019re likely to drag on for years, if not decades, Coffman said, pointing to the complicated nature of environmental cases, the long list of parties involved and leaking mines in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Hanging over the process is a potential Superfund listing, which would inject large amounts of cash into permanent restoration efforts at as many as 50 mining-related sites in the Gladstone area that have contaminated the Upper Animas River, Mineral Creek and Cement Creek for more than a century.<\/p>\n<p>A Superfund listing itself could result in a lawsuit from environmental groups, who may fear that restoration efforts don\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n<p>Coffman said Superfund lawsuits are tricky, and there is a lack of institutional knowledge because Superfund listings are relatively rare. The attorney general\u2019s office downsized its Superfund unit several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have a new generation of attorneys in this office who may not have seen a Superfund case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Coffman said after receiving the two Notice of Intent to sue letters from New Mexico and Utah, her office assembled a 10-person Gold King Mine team, including environmental attorneys and governmental immunity and civil litigation experts.<\/p>\n<p>The attorney general\u2019s office also has held weekly conversations with the governor\u2019s office. Coffman said Gold King Mine is \u201cnear the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLitigation, it\u2019s an important tool that attorneys have, but negotiation is equally important,\u201d Coffman said. \u201cOnce you start litigation, the tone automatically changes, and sometimes irrevocably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is optimistic that he can reach resolution with the two states out of court. But he said: \u201cIf they sue us, I think that unifying effort will be diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coffman said she is not surprised that New Mexico and Utah have put the state on notice, because they are protecting themselves. She said her office might consider filing a counter claim to address any lawsuit that comes. Still, she says the issue has not prevented the states from working together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Litigation still an option, attorney general says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[304,5559,13,2461,1373,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-river","tag-cynthia-coffman","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gold-king-mine-spill","tag-litigation","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105899","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=105899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105899"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}