Navajo Nation Sues the EPA over Gold King Mine Spill

On June 3, 2008, as he wrapped up the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, then-senator Barack Obama told a jubilant crowd in St. Paul, Minn., “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

The Navajo Nation tribe has reason to dispute that contention — and now it’s suing the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court. Reuters reports that the Navajo hope to collect damages related to the agency’s accidental release of millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater from the Gold King Mine into the San Juan River of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

The toxic sludge turned the river’s normally brownish hue into a bright shade of yellow.

From Reuters:

In a court filing, the Navajo tribe alleged the EPA and other parties “recklessly” burrowed into the Gold King Mine in 2015, releasing waste into water upstream from the tribe’s land.

A year later, the waterways remain contaminated and the Navajo people have yet to be compensated . . . 

“One of the Navajo people’s most important sources of water for life and livelihood was poisoned with some of the worst contaminants known to man, including lead and arsenic,” Navajo Nation said in the 48-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico.

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.

The August 2015 rupture of the closed mine unleashed a torrent of yellow sludge with high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead in areas of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. An EPA inspection team had been at the site to inspect seepage at the mine, which had been dormant for decades.

The Navajo say that they have suffered millions of dollars’ worth of damages — agriculture in the area relies heavily on the contaminated San Juan River.

The EPA has put some $29 million toward a clean-up, including $1 million to the Navajo Nation. A decision by the EPA on designating the Gold King Mine a Superfund site is still pending.

The incident may not have been the moment when “the planet began to heal,” but I guess it was good enough for government work.