OPINION:
Figuring out who to blame when something goes wrong depends, as folk wisdom decrees, on whose ox is gored. That applies as well to oil spills and even contaminated water from abandoned copper and lead mines. The Environmental Protection Agency, of all prospective villains, has ruined a pristine river in Colorado, turning it a bright orange, but it was only an accident. Accidents, after all, happen. We have the EPA’s word on it.
Ordinarily when there’s an oil spill or release of pollutants into air or water, the EPA and its groupies race to the cameras to denounce and condemn the “corporate criminals” responsible. When, a month later, it turns out that the corporate crime was really an accident, with nobody to blame, there’s rarely an attempt to repair a damaged reputation. Accidents just happen, after all.
The accident happened when EPA workers were trying to drain and treat contaminated water in one of the thousands of abandoned copper and lead mines in Colorado. Somebody made a mistake, and released up to 3 million gallons of water contaminated with metals and other bad things into the Animas River, turning it bright orange and threatening fish, plant life and people who live downstream. EPA officials told everyone they don’t know how serious the threat might be, but until they find out everyone should avoid the river.
The Animas River is a tributary of the San Juan River, which is one of the nation’s most treasured trout streams. Fishing the San Juan is on just about every fly fisherman’s “bucket list,” but the EPA wants fishermen to avoid the river. Everyone expects a major fish kill. The spill has already reached Durango, Colo., the area’s fly fishing mecca and early next week is expected to spill into Lake Powell. People in the region are angry. A Durango resident on a bridge watching the river, as orange as a pumpkin, rush past, shakes his head in wonder. “This is so insanely tragic and absolutely crazy,” he says. “It feels like something out of a sci-fi novel or movie.”
This disaster story didn’t lead the news over the weekend, but it surely would have if the spill had been caused by a private party. The economy of the area is dependent on tourism and farming, but so far there are none of the usual demands for heads to roll. It was just an accident.
In fact, it no doubt was. But when a private company suffers a similar accident, spilling oil or other contaminants, the EPA leaps to pin the blame on someone, whether the company CEO, a ship’s captain or an the engineer running the train. Someone should get a rope. The idea that such incidents could be accidents is considered only after all other possibilities are exhausted. The company’s stock plummets, state attorneys general vow retribution and the politicians promise new and more stringent regulations to punish people who put profits above people.
The EPA, according to Gov. Susanna Martinez, didn’t bother to notify New Mexico authorities downstream for more than 24 hours after the spill, which her state environmental chief describes as “cavalier and irresponsible.”
Environmental accidents are always unfortunate, some more unfortunate than others, and some incidents are less important when responsibility can’t be pinned on a company bad guy. EPA should count itself lucky that a trout, noble and delicious as it might be, isn’t as photogenic as Cecil the lion.
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