American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015 - 121

ConventionCoverage: New Mexico Oil & Gas Association

Mine Waste Spill, Response
Say A Lot About EPA
By Del Torkelson

SANTA FE, N.M.-Oil and gas industry
oversight is first and foremost a state
function, New Mexico Governor Susana
Martinez indicated at the New Mexico
Oil & Gas Association's 87th annual
convention, held Oct. 4-6 in Santa Fe.
Moreover, she held, her administration
is determined to protect that status. "We
have to assert our role as the primary
regulator," she proclaimed.
A member of Martinez's cabinet, New
Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn, expanded on that theme
by pointing to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's record at a Colorado
mine waste spill during late summer that
polluted New Mexico waters. "Our administration believes strongly that the
state should have primary control over
environmental and natural resource issues,"
he related.
"It is a principle grounded in common
sense, because we live here," Flynn told
NMOGA. "My family and I drink the
water. We care more about the stewardship
of our natural resources than someone
from Dallas (at EPA's Region VI office)
or in Washington. That is simply human
nature, so why shouldn't states have primacy?
"I submit-based on EPA's performance
so far in New Mexico, where it has
created more environmental problems
during the past couple years than it has
solved-the facts speak for themselves,"
he added.

Downplayed Disaster
The mine waste spill occurred in midAugust, when a cleanup authorized by
EPA went awry at an abandoned mine
site outside of Silverton, Co., Flynn recounted. Post-spill measurements in the
Animas River showed lead levels 3,500
times above the Safe Drinking Water
Act standard, and arsenic at 823 times
what the SDWA allows. "EPA and its
contractors caused a discharge of toxic
sludge into a creek, which then fed the
Animas River and flowed into New Mexico," he described.

The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's actions following a mid-August
mine waste spill for which it was responsible were in some ways more disturbing than the initial accident, reflects
New Mexico Environment Department
Secretary Ryan Flynn. He said the
agency's obfuscation and slow response
to the spill-which originated in Colorado
and flowed into New Mexico-did not
serve concerned New Mexicans.

Although the mistake spilled 3 million
tons of waste into a river, the accident
was only the beginning, Flynn related,
suggesting EPA's subsequent decisions
may reflect even more poorly on the
agency. "The thing that really troubled
me-both then and now-is how EPA behaved," he pondered. "The regional administrator in Colorado admitted that
EPA initially downplayed the disaster.
For the first 24-48 hours, the agency said
there already was a lot of contamination
in the river, so the spill was no big deal."
According to Flynn, EPA also kept
state officials in the dark about some key
aspects. "We received an e-mail from a
Region VI senior manager, who asserted
EPA could not provide information because of 'business confidential information,'" he recalled. "I don't even know
what that is."
Although the accident occurred on a
Wednesday, Flynn noted, the EPA did
not acknowledge it publicly for 24 hours.

"On Friday, about 36 hours before the
spill reached New Mexico, EPA published
a linear graph without any supporting
data," he stated. "It made it look like lead
concentrations had flat-lined, and also
omitted arsenic. This created the impression
everything was fine, but it was not. Deceiving the public during an emergency
was one of the tools in EPA's toolbox."
Flynn said top EPA staffers also
claimed short notice prevented them from
coming to New Mexico quickly, an excuse
he contrasted with the conscientiousness
of state officials, some of whom had to
abandon plans to drop their children off
at college. "Imagine if I would have told
the governor that nobody told me there
was going to be an emergency and so it
was too tough to mobilize on such short
notice," Flynn mused. "EPA's regional
administrator did not get here until a
week after the spill occurred. His boss,
the EPA administrator, showed up the
day after this had become a national story
and a political headache."

Style Versus Substance
Even after those EPA officials arrived,
Flynn suggested, they seemed most concerned about public relations and media
coverage. "The Region VI administrator's
press secretary berated our director of
communications because he did not include
an EPA quote in our public advisory
about water testing," Flynn revealed. "My
press person said we were more concerned
about telling New Mexicans where to test
their water. It was not about controlling
the narrative or spinning the story."
Since the agency had not owned up to
the full extent of its mistakes, EPA's
final reaction to the crisis appeared to be
denial, he concluded. "It has landed on
blaming industry," Flynn characterized.
"No mining company actually was involved in this disaster, but now EPA is
calling for mining reform, as if that would
have prevented this spill."
During her remarks, Martinez said her
administration had emphasized environmental stewardship without undercutting
conscientious development. "I have made
it a priority to get rid of unnecessary and
NOVEMBER 2015 121

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