EPA Continues to Hide Pollution Data on Colorado Toxic Spill

The Environmental Protection Agency still won’t provide direct answers to questions about the water exfiltration rates and pollution levels at the Gold King mine immediately before and after the August 5 spill that sent 3 million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River and turned it orange.

On Friday, Breitbart News asked the EPA to provide data from before and after the spill collected at both the Gold King mine and the Red and Bonita mine. So far the agency has failed to provide that information.

The EPA did not respond to the initial Breitbart inquiry prior to our Monday deadline.

On Tuesday, an EPA spokesperson responded in an emailed statement.

“I’ll forward your inquiry right now to our folks on the ground in Colorado,” the EPA spokesperson told Breitbart News.

“Meantime, let me know if you find the following link, [“Data from Gold King Mine Response”] of any use,” the spokesperson added.

The EPA “folks on the ground in Colorado,” however, have not yet responded.

Dave Taylor, the retired geologist who predicted the EPA project that caused the August 5 toxic spill would “fail within 7 to 120 days” has reviewed the data and is unimpressed.

“I have reviewed the ‘Data from Gold King Mine Response’ the EPA has posted online,” Taylor tells Breitbart in an exclusive interview.

“I am disappointed the first tests shown in that data set were taken at 1600 hours (4 pm) on August 5, more than five hours after the spill occurred. I am disappointed because I was anticipating that they would have testing results available from samples taken before the release occurred at 10:30 am on August 5,” Taylor says.

“We need to see water testing that was done a day or two before the spill, when conditions were static,” the retired geologist adds.

Taylor’s review of the EPA data found other troubling areas.

“I am also disappointed that the testing was done at the 14th Street Bridge. I think that’s nine miles downstream from the spill site where the release occurred,” Taylor tells Breitbart News.

“Why isn’t analytical information available in close proximity to the Gold King mine portal?” he asks.

On Tuesday, GOP Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson took a helicopter tour over the Silverton, Colorado site of the August 5 spill. Later that day, he blasted the EPA for causing the spill at a campaign event in Durango, Colorado, 50 miles south of the spill site.