{"id":110239,"date":"2015-08-17T01:30:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T07:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wholl-pay-will-lawsuit-be-filed-against-epa\/"},"modified":"2015-08-17T01:30:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T07:30:37","slug":"wholl-pay-will-lawsuit-be-filed-against-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wholl-pay-will-lawsuit-be-filed-against-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019ll pay: Will lawsuit be filed against EPA?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b1e41a29-ee4e-48ed-9224-127401146592&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b1e41a29-ee4e-48ed-9224-127401146592&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b1e41a29-ee4e-48ed-9224-127401146592&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b1e41a29-ee4e-48ed-9224-127401146592&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1108\" alt=\"\u201cEverything\u2019s taking so damn long,\u201d said Durangoan Kathryn Bucher, right, who expressed her frustration with the slow pace of dealing with the mine wastewater in the Animas River during a meeting with Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, left, on Wednesday at Rotary Park.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">\u201cEverything\u2019s taking so damn long,\u201d said Durangoan Kathryn Bucher, right, who expressed her frustration with the slow pace of dealing with the mine wastewater in the Animas River during a meeting with Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, left, on Wednesday at Rotary Park.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Steve Lewis\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\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\/RhIVDoYK7zg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman visited Durango on Wednesday to evaluate the aftermath of the Animas River debacle.<\/p>\n<p>Legal questions linger after the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged causing an estimated 3 million gallons of mustard-yellow mining wastewater to pour into the Animas. The agency was working with a contractor Aug. 5 on reclamation work for the abandoned Gold King Mine near Silverton when the team accidentally loosened rock material during excavation, allowing the tainted water to make its way into the river and through Durango.<\/p>\n<p>Given the EPA\u2019s error, those affected by the river\u2019s closure are wondering whether lawsuits might be a remedy. But Coffman, a Republican, said she\u2019s not sure whether lawsuits would be worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are theories of liability that folks have. \u2026 I haven\u2019t sat down and researched all of those with my staff,\u201d Coffman told The Durango Herald on Wednesday morning. \u201cFrankly, to me, it\u2019s too soon to know whether that\u2019s even necessary. I would prefer that we would not have to litigate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coffman said she will seek agreements with the EPA that outline a course of action for people to be compensated both immediately and in the long run. The EPA has established a claims process for those impacted, and so Coffman recommends that people keep all receipts and document the consequences they experience.<\/p>\n<p>She planned to host New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes in Durango during her visit later Wednesday. The group of attorneys general hope to establish a unified course of action moving forward after speaking with officials on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>If Coffman chooses to file a lawsuit against the EPA on behalf of the state, the move could put her office at odds with Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, who pointed out Tuesday that the EPA is different than a private entity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe difference is the EPA is not trying to make a profit,\u201d Hickenlooper said, addressing questions from the public at Rotary Park on Tuesday. \u201cThe assumption when there are fines is that a private business has gone above and beyond what the expected regulations are, what the law says, because they wanted to get additional profit. The fine is taking some of those profits away. \u2026 The EPA doesn\u2019t make a profit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coffman, however, said the profit factor doesn\u2019t necessarily influence decisions on taking legal action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEPA has taken on a role and a responsibility in our government, and they have duties that are prescribed by law, and they need to be accountable to the people in the same way that a private company is,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n<p>She had hoped to secure a meeting with EPA chief Gina McCarthy on Wednesday, as McCarthy also was in Durango for briefings. But Coffman had not scheduled a meeting as of Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would take my time to ask what the EPA foresees in terms of remediation and costs, and obviously they are the folks who know how to supervise a cleanup, so I think they would be able to tell us what their timeline is and what they expect potential damages to be,\u201d Coffman said.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, questions remain about the legal process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know at this point who will sue whom,\u201d Coffman said. \u201cThe good and the evil of being a lawyer is that anybody can file suit, and it\u2019s a question of what would actually be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:pmarcus@durangoherald.com\">pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coffman says she would prefer to  avoid court battle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[304,13,316,303],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-river","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-video","tag-water-pollution"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110239","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=110239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110239"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}