Utah Sues Over Massive, Multistate 2015 Mine Waste Spill

The state of Utah has sued mine owners and contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a spill of mine waste that fouled rivers in three Western states with a massive plume of bright-yellow wastewater tainted with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. Utah wants cleanup compensation and unspecified damages in the 3-million-gallon Gold King Mine spill that was accidentally triggered by EPA contractors in 2015, Utah Attorney General’s Office spokesman Dan Burton said Tuesday. Utah hasn’t named a damages amount because it’s still investigating how much it will ultimately cost to clean up its portion of spill that left as much as 880,000 pounds of metals in rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, Burton said.