{"id":95431,"date":"2019-02-26T12:58:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T19:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunnyside-gold-says-epa-should-be-recused-from-leading-silverton-superfund-cleanup\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T12:58:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T19:58:54","slug":"sunnyside-gold-says-epa-should-be-recused-from-leading-silverton-superfund-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunnyside-gold-says-epa-should-be-recused-from-leading-silverton-superfund-cleanup\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunnyside Gold says EPA should be recused from leading Silverton Superfund cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=661b19c3-de34-42aa-8e13-8da1aaf2dde8&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=661b19c3-de34-42aa-8e13-8da1aaf2dde8&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=661b19c3-de34-42aa-8e13-8da1aaf2dde8&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=661b19c3-de34-42aa-8e13-8da1aaf2dde8&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=\"1933\" height=\"1260\" alt=\"Sunnyside Gold Corp. says it is a conflict of interest to have the Environmental Protection Agency lead the Silverton Superfund cleanup given the agency caused the Gold King Mine spill. Sunnyside is considered on the hook for cleanup costs.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Sunnyside Gold Corp. says it is a conflict of interest to have the Environmental Protection Agency lead the Silverton Superfund cleanup given the agency caused the Gold King Mine spill. Sunnyside is considered on the hook for cleanup costs.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Is it a conflict of interest for the Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for the Gold King Mine spill, to lead the Superfund cleanup of mine pollution around Silverton? The last company to operate a mine in Silverton, which is also possibly on the hook for cleanup costs, seems to think so.<\/p>\n<p>Sunnyside Gold Corp. on Monday sent a letter to the acting inspector general for the EPA, Charles Sheehan, asking the EPA be investigated for its part in the Superfund site and ultimately be recused as the lead agency in the cleanup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe conflict of interest is clear,\u201d Kevin Roach, director of reclamation for Sunnyside Gold, wrote in an email to <em>The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cEPA caused the Gold King spill, which led to the Superfund listing, and resulted in the EPA being a defendant in multiple lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Peterson wrote in an email Tuesday that Sunnyside Gold has been identified as a potentially responsible party under the Superfund law as an owner and operator of the Sunnyside Mine, and that the company\u2019s activities have contributed to significant water quality degradation in the upper Animas River watershed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEPA will continue to require the company to take actions to ensure that financial responsibility for cleanup is not shifted to taxpayers,\u201d Peterson wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Roach, for his part, said the \u201cconflict\u201d has made the EPA incapable of cleaning up the site in an \u201ceven-handed\u201d manner, which has resulted in EPA improperly targeting Sunnyside Gold \u201cto engage in useless investigatory work costing millions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p><div class=\"naviga-social-embed\">&lt;![CDATA[\n<div class=\"pdf-asset-embed\">\n  Sunnyside letter<br>\n  <iframe src=\"\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ337175226.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pdf-download-notice\">If you\u2019re unable to view the PDF document above, <a href=\"https:\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ337175226.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to view it in a new tab<\/div>\n<p>\n]]&gt;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Roach also said, \u201cEPA\u2019s application of Superfund as a weapon against SGC is an abuse of power and contradicts the purpose of Superfund, since it has been proven that SGC has only improved water quality in the area,\u201d Roach wrote in an email.<\/p>\n<p>The Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site was declared in fall 2016. Ever since, Sunnyside Gold has challenged the cleanup project.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, a judge dismissed <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/212145\">Sunnyside Gold\u2019s attempt to scale back the Superfund<\/a>, which consists of 48 mining sites. Sunnyside Gold owned two of the 29 sites the company recommended be taken off the list.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/213602-epa-orders-sunnyside-gold-to-investigate-mine-pollution\">the EPA ordered Sunnyside Gold to conduct an investigation<\/a> into mine pollution, believing the company\u2019s operations have significantly altered the groundwater system and, as a result, have caused other mines to discharge waste and contaminate the headwaters of the Animas River.<\/p>\n<p>Sunnyside Gold, which closed the last operating mine in Silverton in 1991, is seen as the largest \u201cpotential responsible party\u201d \u2013 a term EPA uses for companies that could be on the hook for cleanup costs.<\/p>\n<p>Sunnyside Gold operated the vast Sunnyside Mine network for just six years but has since performed millions of dollars worth of cleanup projects over the years. The company is now owned by international mining conglomerate Kinross Gold Corp.<\/p>\n<p>Despite past cleanup efforts, Sunnyside Gold is wrapped up in the biggest mystery of mine pollution in the Animas River headwaters. Many believe bulkheads the company placed in the 1990s to stop drainages out of the Sunnyside Mine have backed up and now caused other mines to discharge potentially toxic water. The move was an agreement with the state of Colorado that released Sunnyside Gold of its liability under the Clean Water Act.<\/p>\n<p>One of those sites is the Gold King Mine, where in August 2015 an EPA-contracted crew was working on a cleanup project and accidentally caused a blowout, sending 3 million gallons of wastewater down the Animas River.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear where the EPA is with its search for potentially responsible parties, other than with Sunnyside Gold and the current owners of a former smelting company that recently <a href=\"https:\/\/durangoherald.com\/articles\/249708\">paid nearly $1 million for cleanup costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Roach said Sunnyside Gold \u201cwould be open to any number of agencies that don\u2019t have EPA\u2019s track record of failing to act in a neutral manner,\u201d taking the lead in the Superfund.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:jromeo@durangoherald.com\">jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ337175226.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunnyside letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>company says federal agency has conflict of interest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[2730,1030,174,738,222,739,2138,2461,4259,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-bonita-peak-mining-district","tag-environment","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-environmental-issue","tag-environmental-pollution","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-gold-king-mine","tag-gold-king-mine-spill","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95431","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=95431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95431"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}