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Disaster response

Assessing, remediating spill requires honesty, clarity and coordination

A region-wide disaster occurred when an estimated 3 million gallons of water began gushing out of the collapsed portal into the Gold King Mine on Wednesday morning. That the Environmental Protection Agency, whose exploratory work triggered the spill, has struggled to assess and communicate the event and its magnitude is one in a series of ironies surrounding it – beginning long before the agency’s track hoe began digging through the debris in the mine tunnel. More typically, the EPA is on the team of respondents to such spills, entering the scene to assist industry and local and state authorities.

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