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On Tuesday, GOP presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson made a lightning trip to Durango to decry the Environmental Protection Agency before a crowd of thousands at Rotary Park overlooking the maligned Animas River.<\/p>\n
Based on the sheer throng of supporters Carson attracted and the cheers that met his denunciations of the EPA, the GOP presidential candidate and the Gold King Mine disaster both look poised to play increasingly prominent roles in the Republican primaries.<\/p>\n
When it came to the EPA, Dr. Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon who has been surging in national polls since his breakout performance at the GOP debates, didn\u2019t pull any punches, insisting the EPA should be held accountable for its role in the Gold King Mine spill, a position which earned him wild cheers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took a helicopter ride to the Gold King mining site this morning and witnessed firsthand\u201d the discoloration and \u201clooked at the environmental impact caused by the EPA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
An EPA contractor doing research at Gold King Mine in Silverton triggered the spill Aug. 5, sending more than 3 million gallons of metal-laden mining sludge cascading through Durango and across three states and led multiple counties to declare states of disaster.<\/p>\n
Since 1994, Silverton has fought the EPA\u2019s attempts to list the area\u2019s draining mines, which have polluted the Animas River for more than a century, under the Superfund program.<\/p>\n
Though scientists with the EPA and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment now say that metal concentrations in the Animas River have returned to pre-disaster levels, Carson said the larger issue of resulting environmental damage to the Animas is far from resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the long-term impact as metals seep into the ground \u2026 and animals ingest them?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He told reporters after the speech that unlike Gov. John Hickenlooper, who drank a glass of Animas River water to illustrate that the river should be reopened for recreational activities, under no circumstances would he sip from the Animas around Durango.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly wouldn\u2019t tell anyone to drink it. We don\u2019t understand the long-term environmental impacts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He accused the EPA of hiding behind governmental immunity, saying if an oil company had made a similar mistake, he doubted the EPA would \u201cbe so understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson described the EPA as dominated by \u201ca bunch of bureaucrats who don\u2019t know a bunch of anything\u201d and who try to \u201ccontrol people\u2019s lives\u201d and promised under his administration, Americans would see \u201ca different kind of EPA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder my administration, you wouldn\u2019t have to sue the EPA, because I would get rid of all the old people and bring in people who understand the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview after the event, he seemed to walk back his comments about firing each of the 17,000 people who now work for the EPA across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everyone,\u201d he clarified. \u201cBut people who don\u2019t understand the purpose of the EPA, which is not to make businesses miserable. I think they should be working along with industry, not as adversaries but as allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson said he opposed Superfund status for Silverton as it might hurt the town\u2019s reputation. Pursuing Superfund status should be up to the town\u2019s residents, he said.<\/p>\n
Also, Carson said if he were president, marijuana would be illegal across the country including Colorado. As a neuroscientist, he said, he knows too well the \u201cdeleterious affects on the developing brain\u201d and objects to legalizing a substance that sabotages Americans\u2019 intellectual potential.<\/p>\n
Throughout his speech, Carson repeatedly decried the influence of \u201csecular progressives\u201d on the national debate, which he characterized as nefarious, and cast himself as the opponent of all things politically correct.<\/p>\n
At other points in his speech, Carson variously denied ever experimenting on fetal tissue, defined gay marriage as an issue for the states, challenged modern-day society\u2019s penchant for \u201cchanging everything\u201d given America\u2019s historical greatness as a country, and declared America to be Judeo-Christian nation.<\/p>\n
At 2,000-strong, the audience that Carson drew early Tuesday afternoon in Durango with only a day\u2019s notice was nearly four times the size of the crowd that showed up to the EPA\u2019s amply publicized public meeting on a Sunday night in the immediate, emotionally charged aftermath of the Gold King Mine disaster.<\/p>\n
Carson\u2019s speech earned rave reviews from Durangoans.<\/p>\n
Durango\u2019s Melissa Miller, 55, said, \u201cHe gives me hope in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fort Lewis College student and track coach Jacob Hetrick, 23, said he appreciated Carson speaking \u201cfrom a nonpolitical point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though John Ogorzalek, 56, who owns a mini-storage facility in Durango, said he hadn\u2019t yet decided whether to vote for Carson, he found Carson \u201cintelligent and well-spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durango\u2019s Rich Spraker said he didn\u2019t agree with Carson saying \u201che\u2019d get rid of the EPA.\u201d He added, \u201cI don\u2019t really blame the EPA\u201d for Gold King. But after flirting with Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Scott Walker, Spraker said after hearing Carson speak, he was sold: \u201cI was thoroughly impressed with him. This guy is only going higher, not lower.\u201d<\/p>\n