Readers may recall that the EPA disappeared photos of the Gold King mine disaster from their web page. Perhaps they got just a bit burnt from the public backlash to that.
From YouTube, (h/t to Ryan Maue) EPA releases Gold King Mine blowout footage.
Gotta love the comments from the audio such as:
‘Get outta here?!… What do we do now?’
On September 2, 2015 EPA posted the following edited footage filmed by EPA contractors of the Gold King Mine blowout of August 5, 2015.
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WTFUWT!
Check the contract. Was it to de-water the mine and clear the tunnel? If so, they did a great job.
“complete with a WTF moment”
You are way too kind.
Regarding the EPA and this situation,
the “WTF” lasts waaaaaay longer than a moment.
the flow in the video at the beginning looks like about 100cfs. I would only take a little over an hour to release 3 million gallons (that was the reported amount of the spill I believe) at that rate. However, about half way through the video it looks like the flow has increased dramatically. Does anyone know how long the flow continued in that manner.
You think that the trickle at the beginning is over 800 gallons per second?
That would be 48000 gallons per minute.
That would be like five decent sized backyard swimming pools in a minute.
No chance was it that much at first.
Even at the point that the guy was asking what should they do now, it appeared to be about the output of a 10 HP irrigation pump, possibly a little more. Which is about 500 GPM.
Thank about it…100 cubic feet per second passing out of a five foot wide opening would need to be twenty feet high and traveling at 1 foot per second, or about 0.7 mph. If it was moving at the speed of a decent run, say seven mph, or a mile in under 9 minutes, it would still need to be two feet high and five feet wide to equal 100 cfm.
schadefreude
Put me on that excavator and I will stop or at least dramatically slow the discharge. This was no explosive discharge from a huge pressure head. It was gradual erosion of the dam. The dam material in evidence could not have held a pressure head in the first place.None of the flows shown were any danger to the equipment there. They could have used the blade to create a secondary containment berm even as the excavator slowed the flow. Candy asses, the lot.
Initially yes. If they had had some dynamite maybe they could have blown the hole to collapse the opening and then had a lot more time to bring heavier equipment to shore up any remaining seepage.
All the dramatic torrent footage shown later on is after it became a waterfall past the road.
When they first saw the water flow, they had a chance, and should have tried as you suggest.
The bulldozer could have pushed a pile of dirt end to the opening, parked there, and operator abandon bulldozer.
The track backhoes could then have started pulling front edges down to quickly build up dam; eventually forming a dirt wall plug.
If plugging failed, worst case was loss of one bulldozer.
There was no head of pressure. Any dam at all would have contained it at first. But the floor of the opening was just dirt and clay, which began to erode, and expand the opening downward. At that point it was too late, but at first, it was easily stopped.
These people had no idea what they were doing, no idea what the dangers were, no idea what they were looking at, even after it started.
Complete incompetence.
Not even. The low pressure flow out of the mine could not even budge that blade. They tried to drive the truck across the flow, got it stuck, and it didn’t even wash the piss ant truck away. Just flooded the floor of the cab for the WTF moment.
Menicholas, there would have been a pressure head, but it was within the mine tunnel complex. The trickle at the start simply shows the size of the orifice the water was passing through. As the water flow increased it pulled soil and debris out of the flow passage.
To be honest, once the dam wall is breached, nothing will stop it. It had to be contained from within and from the top down.
This video clearly show absolutely no safety, no containment, no failure plan, no escape route, no consideration of even the slightest.
I completely agree gymnosperm.
I cannot figure out why that backhoe was not dropping dirt back into the opening.
I wonder how long it was before they understood what would transpire if they watched and let it continue?
This is like putting a match to your living room sofa, then standing in the doorway watching as first the cushion, then the couch, and then the whole room gradually caught on fire.
To be fair, they didn’t know if the initial leak was a puddle or the lake it turned out to be. If they had a clue, they would have realized that if it was high pressure head situation the initial leak would have been shooting out way past the road.The mine was dug at a very low uphill angle for a very long way into the hill. There was a lot of water at very low pressure. There was no need to evacuate the excavator. It should have been pushing what it had dug back into the mine.
Amazing how this becomes a metaphor for the whole climate situation.Carbon dioxide is the water in that mine. There is a lot of it at very low pressure…
When you appoint rabid lying progressives to run our government you end up with the honest hard working people leaving and a bunch of rump swabs rushing in to fill the void.
…and finger pointers with forked tongues back at headquarters.
Low information voters => low competence bureaucrats.
I suspect that the long bleaped out parts might be the equipment operator’s reply to the EPA guy who asked about going back to plug the hole. Probably along the lines of what he should do with his own anatomy or something.
Why wouldn’t they pump or syphon the stuff out into a containment field of some kind?
Just going in and removing blocks? Nah this isn’t stupidity, this is criminal negligence.
At a certain point ignorance and stupidity become actionable. All of the EPA Bureaucrats should be in prison right now serving a life sentence under the RICO statutes.
On everything I’ve read or seen about this I see people defending the EPA and casting blame on people that are 100 years gone.
To those people: please READ UP on what you’re seeing.
The mines were under control. The seepage was at an acceptable level. The EPA themselves accelerated the problem in order to fit a political agenda. If they had kept their hands off of this the situation could have remained stable for hundreds of years.
Make sure your outrage is aimed in the proper direction.
CodeTech,
Asking the average American to blame government is like asking the Pope to blame God. Just does not happen often.
Remember this?
“I love my country, but I fear my government”
“”I love my country, but (I) fear my government” is a saying on bumper stickers and T-shirts that dates to at least April 1987. It is not known who originated the saying. ”
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_love_my_country_but_i_fear_my_government
Steve P – “… I fear my government”
And so few people these days have the slightest inkling that our Liberty was founded on the opposite principle, that government is supposed to fear us.
3 million gallons of toxic wastewater at an elevation of 10,000ft stored behind a loose earthen berm is never a “stable” situation.
As I understand it, there wasn’t 3 million gallons until the EPA plugged all the drains.
Any other industry does something like this and the EPA would have been on top of them with a herd of environmentalists like flies on ****. EPA does it and all they can do is pretend its not that bad and it will all just go away down the river.
The guy opening the pickup was priceless. I hope it was his and not the governments. Shouldn’t be polluting our atmosphere with CO2 from a big pickup while working for the govt. Should have been driving a Prius.
Cycling?
Auto
“Shouldn’t be polluting our atmosphere with CO2 from a big pickup…”
Great point. If EPA truly believes that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant, then EPA should walk their talk. All the heavy Equipment should have been “battery powered” and recharged overnight from Solar Cells (yeah I know, no sun at night, but we are talking EPA here…).
It was all just fluke atmospheric conditions that made the water look that color. Move along.
EPA knew of ‘blowout’ risk for tainted water at gold mine
“WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials knew of the potential for a catastrophic “blowout” of poisonous wastewater from an inactive gold mine, yet appeared to have only a cursory plan to deal with such an event when a government cleanup team triggered a 3-million-gallon spill, according to internal documents released by the Environmental Protection Agency”
[…]
A May 2015 action plan produced by an EPA contractor, Environmental Restoration LLC, also noted the potential for a blowout.
The May plan also called for a pond that would be used to manage the mine water and prevent contaminants from entering waterways. That pond was not completed.”
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/national/wire/epa-knew-of-blowout-risk-for-tainted-water-at-gold/article_d929646c-460c-5b0e-8fcb-3098ad76fcb5.html
What man-made poisons were in the water? – or were the “poisons” just naturally occurring heavy metals that have been eroding off the mountains sides for eons?
Just heavy metals in acidic solution. It was all going to end up in the river one way or another, either all at once, or gradually. As much as I’d enjoy seeing Epa disbanded, you have to admit, the problem certainty was solved.
It was not going to end up in the river anyway. Not in anyone’s lifetime.
Eventually the entire mountain will erode away, so in that time scale it will end up in the river.
If it trickled out over a long period of time, a lot of the metals would have adsorbed onto soil and clay particles, some would have soaked into the ground, reacted with other minerals, and stayed there, and some may have precipitated out of solution. In fact, much of what wound up in the river was almost surely sediment which became loosened and entrained into the water flow due to the speed of the torrent.
They made it far worse than simply leaving it alone might have ever done.
Do not forget, all of the metals were in that mountain since it was uplifted. Digging a mine, and then abandoning it make what is already there, more prone to dissolution and becoming waterborne.
The mine had sulfide ores in it. Ground water flowing though sulfide ores converts the sulfur to sulfuric acid. The acid then leaches metals out of the rock. Once the acid exits the mine the sulfur dioxide is released in the air and the acidic level of the water drops.As the acidity drops the metals precipitate out of the water and settle to the bottom of the stream or pool. the EPA is currently letting the water out gas and minerals settle in a pool before releasing the water into the river.
It is a natural process that normally happens very slowly and the water flows are normally very small. However when you dig a hole in the mountain and allow it to fill with water the process can accelerate dramatically producing massive amounts of extremely acid water with tons of heavy metals in solution.
Someone get HAL or one o the many climate supercomputers to fill in the missing words with lip reading technology.
We are in control we are the EPA.
I am sure somebody asked this,
but who protects the environment from the EPA?
Perfect question.
The follow up is, WHO will be held accountable for this at the EPA?
“WHO will be held accountable for this at the EPA?”
Seriously? You got to be kidding!
EPA and accountability – ROFLMAO
EPA reports to No One, not even Congress – as rubber stamped by Liberal Activist Judges.
There is no accountability when EPA was allowed to remain intact, after declaring CO2 a Dangerous Pollutant.
I meant that as a rhetorical question.
The EPA is the vicar of Gaia on Earth. -i.e. They have elevated the inanimate Earth to a sentient entity that they worship; and force the non-compliant ‘agaiaists’ into their religious system.
“What do we do now?”
No worries, you obviously need to tweak your computer modelling to fix this one.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PKef1LZ1G0s/T-5vZ4-FymI/AAAAAAAASZU/FqfhAAMPC4U/s400/dutch+boy.png
I want to see the PHA (Process Hazards Analysis) that the EPA performed before they began this operation. This includes when the EPA plugged up the first mine and then before the EPA had this mine opened up so that they could spill 3 million+ gallons of toxic waste.
If the EPA does not know how to do this, I could have done it for them. I’ve done a number of PHAs and we never had a problem with the operation. PHAs work.
Oh, wait! The EPA has a PHA “how to” on their own website: http://www.epa.gov/region10/pdf/rmp/cepp_newsletter_0708.pdf
Here is what the EPA states must be done from Page 1 of their own Chemical Emergency Prevention & Planning document :
“The process hazard analysis (PHA) is a key requirement of EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, 40 CFR Part 68, and OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard, 29 CFR 1910.119. These regulations require that PHA address toxic, fire, and explosion hazards resulting from specific chemicals and their possible impacts on employees, the public and the environment.
PHA is a thorough, orderly, and systematic approach for identifying, evaluating, and controlling the hazards of processes involving highly hazardous chemicals. The facility shall perform a process hazard analysis on all processes covered by the EPA RMP rule or OSHA PSM standard.
The process hazard analysis methodology selected must be appropriate to the complexity of the process and must identify, evaluate, and control the hazards involved in the process.
First, the facility must determine and document the priority order for conducting process hazard analyses based on a rationale that includes such considerations as the extent of the process hazards, the number of potentially affected employees, the age of the process, and the operating history of the process. The process hazard analyses should be conducted as soon as possible.
The facility shall use one or more of the following methods, as appropriate, to determine and evaluate the hazards of the process being analyzed:
1 What-if,
2 Checklist,
3 What-if/checklist,
4 Hazard and operability study (HAZOP), ¾ Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), ¾ Fault tree analysis, or
5 An appropriate equivalent methodology.”
There is much more in this EPA document.
Had the EPA followed their own guidelines, there would have been plans in place to asses the hazards involved and mitigate any problems which arose. The EPA did NOT follow their own guidelines.
Please no talking points about the contractor should have done this. PHAs are always carried out with the project owner, which in this case was the EPA.
I really don’t see what the big deal is.
The E.P.A. will pay for entire cost of cleanup.
It’s not like we Taxpayers will be out any money…
/snark
Messed up the blockquote. The latter “blockquote”,
“I know if I didn’t follow the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) the EPA and OSHA calls for my AWBIAS (Ass Would Be In A Sling) if something went wrong.”
is my comment.
(I think it’s time for my nap! 😎
You are correct either way
Was the purpose of this breaching explained? It should never have been just plugged in the first place, but I guess it was a long time ago. If it was leaking at an average of 100gallons a minute before plugging, it will just resume at 100 gallons a minute now as I suspect it is if these clowns didn’t replug it again. Simple lime treatment of the water in situe would have precipitated a lot of the heavy metals out. This could be done in a catchment pond, then line the drain from the pond with crushed limestone. You’d need enough to neutralize the acid water before precipitation is significant. If there is a lot of copper, you can put (tin cans, etc) into one pond the iron will be replaced with copper which you can recover and then follow with a liming pond. I suppose they had some such idea to deal with the seep (anyone see pictures with bags of lime in them?).
Why didn’t they hire a mining engineering company to do the job.
For some reason this reminds me of a refugee invasion.
Different views on the situation:
https://www.hcn.org/articles/acid-mine-drainage-explainer-animas-pollution-epa-gold-king
https://www.hcn.org/articles/five-western-waterways-worse-than-the-orange-animas
It seems you eed to clear up the mess you make when you extract minerals – obvious really. But of course it means some of your profits. Or of course you just leave it for someone else to fix as seems to be the problem here.
Good links, thanks for posting. Even without mining, you get Red Mountains, and dead streams.
“But the early settlers also were struck by the reddish orange color (like the Animas River after the “spill”) of some of the mountains. They were also struck by the same orange in some streams during times of high runoff, streams that were lifeless even then. Indeed, an observer in 1874 noted that Cement Creek was “so strongly impregnated with mineral ingredients as to be quite unfit for drinking.”
This is a quote from EPA Administrator Armendariz:
“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said:
“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.
“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”
“It’s a deterrent factor,” Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA is following the Romans’ philosophy for subjugating conquered villages.
Armendariz wasn’t involved in this teensy little disaster. But it seems like the general personality type was.
And I thought we were against bullies in this country. When it comes to government agencies I guess not.
Look at the police force, do you see any bullies in there? it’s like they went through the school records just to find them. The job attracts them. Which I think is what happens with environmental enforcement jobs, it attracts those narcissistic personality types.