Drinking the water. There are a lot of impacts. That plume that stretched out over 100 miles is now cleared. There is sort of a yellow sludge in the riverbed. That is being tested. There are epa crews at the site blowout. Ld king mine theyre trying to treat the water, which is traced with heavy metals, as much as possible before he goes on into the animus headwaters. Host you mentioned the gold king mind. That is where this took place. What got into the river . What are the chemicals and heavy metals that people are most concerned about . Yellow sortoranges of mustard hue comes from, my oxidetanding is, iron hearing there are a whole bunch of heavy metals that drain out of mind. Some of the ones that people were concerned about where lead, manganese, copper, arsenic. Us back toou take august 5, and why the Environmental Protection agency was at this mine, and how this all happen in the first place . They were working around the opening of the mine with a contractor. This is the high San Juan Mountains of colorado, where there is a long history of mining going back a century. You know, metals that helped ,uel the Industrial Revolution out of these mountains. There are about 30 in the immediate area. Out of those, four or five have recently been causing a lot of discharge. Talks his dischar they were working a couple of mines in the area. They had slumped dirt around the Gold King Mine. The contractors and the epa were up there, trying to clear debris from the opening of the mine. As they were trying to clear that out, they inadvertently triggered a deluge of an estimated 3 million gallons of. His heavy metal laced waste it poured out, it took out a suburban vehicle it was great, i think it is now yellow the employees werent hurt, but that is what set off the mustard plume that you saw in utah. Do, host we have a special line set and new mexico residents. We are interested in hearing stories from residents in those states, especially if you have been impacted by the epas spill. Otherwise, our lives i set up by region. If you are in the eastern are central part of the united states, 202 7488000. For coloradoline and new mexico residents, 202 7458002. Epa Administrator Gina Mccarthy went out to colorado this week to look at the spill on the ground. Before she went, she also spoke about it at an event here in washington, d. C. [video clip] the release of mining waste a colorado is impacted not just the state of colorado, but it new mexico, and the Navajo Nation. It is really a tragic and unfortunate incident. The epa is taking responsibility to make sure that spill is cleaned up. The most important effort we are ensuring right away is the health and safety of the residents and visitors near the river. We have committed to helping people throughout the four Corners Region who rely on the rivers for their Drinking Water, irrigation water, and recreation. We know how important it is to them. As you may know, there are thousands of abandoned mines in the west, and epa routinely works with states to clean up these spills. This spill occurred when one of our contracting teams was to entervy equipment the gold king mind, and an active mind just to the north of rango. Ty of durin in response to the unfortunate incident, we have used the f full breath of death of the organization to respond. It takes time to review and analyze data. I understand peoples frustration, but we have a researchers and scientists working around the clock. Our commitment is to get this right, and make sure were protecting public health. The bruce finley with denver post, what are you hearing about where the cleanup is that 10 days later . Yelloworange plume has dissipated 10 days later. Yesterday, the town of durango, durango, 17,000 people, started taking in water from the animus again, and treated for Drinking Water treated it for jerking water. The irrigation ditches are still being flushed. They constantly over the river for irrigation and rafting. The governor and the health chief from colorado have been down along the river. To get itvisiting it open as soon as possible. The river is like the soul of durango. Host we can show our viewers the front page of the denver silvertonrning residents fed up with epa spill. Bruce finley has been covering the story all this week with the denver post. We will start with don, calling in from california. Good morning. Pill,r on this this highlights the ideological incompetence that the epa is full of. How can we trust them to take care of the environment when inadvertently stuck a needle in a water balloon. You dont do that. They knew exactly what they were doing. If they didnt know how much water was sitting in there, behind the van they were digging out, then there absolutely host that highlights a comment , whospeaker john boehner has been very critical of the epa since the breach and spill. Here is a tweet epa toxic spill is very serious, just as s slow response. And you respond to some of the criticism the epa has perceived . Guest when people woke up friday morning and saw the river running through the city looking the color of mustard, there is quite a bit of frustration, fear, and anger. I think a lot of the problem with the response is that it was 24 hours before the agency notify people of this bill. I think also, the frustration was driven by the inability to produce data on Water Quality, even acknowledging some of those heavy metal levels. There has been frustration, especially in that area, with epa. People fear the stigma of being a cleanup. All that said, i think it is the only agency with the resources to deal with this problem. People colorado know too well about the leaking old mines in the balance. There are 23,000 old mines in colorado. You are talking about a National Environmental problem where it ha headwaters of the nations rivers are contaminated bit by bit by heavy metal. With states limited in what they could do, i think even in the town of silverton, you find people realize that probably the epa is the agency that will have to help more, not less, in the future. You talk about the possibility of being designated a superfund cleanup site. What does that mean jer . Guest there was a federal authority over this mine superfund refers to the process of getting this done. Site comesperfund the cleanup. There are a lot more resources under the superfund budget. In this case, the epa crew working with the contractors, that was not a superfund project yet. Host some of the criticism coming not only from republicans, but democrats as well. Here is a democrat of colorado, epa shouldnet the be more forthcoming with full test results from animus river water samples. Three days after the spill is when he tweeted that out. Lets go to neva, waiting in oregon. Caller thank you for taking my call. My question is who will be fired over this . If this is a private industry corporation, they would be fired and find. Why is it that the federal government is not firing people . They get rich over this. Not voted in, they were put in by bureaucracy. We are tired of this. Theyre telling people how to live. We are sick and tired of this. That is why donald trump looks so good, even for the democrats. Thank you for taking my call. Host bruce finley, anyone getting fired . Guest no. Not yet. Didepa minister mccarthy say that will be a full investigation into how this happened. And size, the epa, in the wake of this disaster, announced that it will shut down similar types of work at these sites to try to make sure that there is no likelihood of repeating what happened at the gold king. The colorado senators have also been strong and asking for an investigation to ask what happened at the site. Approaching these old mines is pretty tricky work. Debris, the tunnels in some cases are backed up, you dont know how much water is in them. When the crew was going up to that site on august 5, they had really no idea how much water was in there. I think it is always a little bit risky when you are trying to open up an old mine, and find a way to drain it. The Jason Chaffetz is chairman of the House Oversight and reform committee. He tweeted earlier this week, our committee will be. Nvestigating this toxic spill who leads an independent investigation into the epa . They have not announced to would be doing the independent investigation yet. Reporters, we have been trying in the days after the disaster to investigate as well we can. Document work order that may have set out the protocols for approaching that the kind of skills the contractors would be required to have that job. The epa promised that would be available. A have not made it available yet. Host patrick is in florida. You are on with bruce finley of the denver post. Thanks for taking my call. I would like to remind the cspan audience one of the few things i liked about bill clinton if he made these a surety bondsy before they started digging and or drilling for oil so the epa would not get stuck, or the federal taxpayer. That is the first thing george bush did away with. The state has 23,000 minds mines. Is there any state responsibility . How about we give them incentive. If they do not clean up in five years, no banks get fdi a assurance so they cannot make home loans. They cannot just walk away and stick the bill to the federal taxpayer. This other thing, we have Ground Penetrating radar that goes a deep to findmile and even you Nuclear Program but they cannot put that over the mines . Sorry, thought you were done. What is the stage responsibility with this spill . The state responsibility with this spill . Newt for current and mining operations, there are new bonding requirements, though not as strict as some would like. But in this case and with the case of the 23,000 mines the caller referred to, those are abandoned, for which there are no permits, i understand, from talking to state mining regulators. Take the gold king. They stopped mining there in 1923. The woodsold mines in that state Officials Say there is no inspection process, no permit against which you could measure the leak and hold someone accountable for. In most cases, in the 230 mines they know are still leaking today, they do not have a potential he responsible party. So the state is limited in what they can do, having that many mines and no one to hold accountable. Host an individual on twitter asks isnt this waterfall w ater full of arsenic and wont it end up in reservoirs and the grand canyon . Some pictures and maps of the animas river while you answer. Guest after the disaster, federal testing has gone all the the gold king 60 miles into durango and into new mexico where the animas river flows into the san juan river. In new mexico, that flow is the for source of water supply communities, including farmington. The san juan then moves through utah and the Navajo Nation towards the grand canyon. Extended intoas lake powell, right above the grand canyon. They are testing both the dissolved solids, the heavy metals in the river, and the sediment that falls on the bottom of the river. Of those test results have been used to determine when it would be saved to open the river for the rafting industry. There are still elevated levels. F heavy metals in that sludge it looks sort of yellow. Iron oxide there. Antimony,evels of thallium, that are still showing up. A little silver. Riskse what they call based screening. That has to do with exposure. If there are lot if there are not a lot of people being exposed, the risk is lower. So lots of testing. Host we are showing viewers pictures of the bottles of water wereom peoples homes that sent for testing from farmington, new mexico. Bob is from st. Louis. You are on with bruce finley of the denver post. Caller people call me ash. I am from a town called pallet town. Like to talk about the environmental problem from my land. A simple problem, a simple solution that we used to protect the town. A man named presser oak talk to me and he said if there was of this creature that was blocking the road called a host we go to gain dane. Good morning. Caller hello. You corrected me on the gist of what i was going to ask, but farmington did you say farmington . Farmington in new mexico was the picture we showed. The downstream area were testing happened this past week. Question i have is how many people have been thing . D by this what is the federal government doing to get these people the stuff they need, i guess. Do we have numbers and the response by the federal government on getting these people water . It is an interesting question. Vantage point in colorado i was only working around durango and silverton. Durango has a population of 17,000. Silverton is a small town, less than 700 people at the base of cement creek where it meets the animas. So the immediate human area of concern. You also have aquatic life. Fish, long since dead in the headwaters. The way the epa responded is they made model water available. In durango, they use the La Plata County fairgrounds and they set up a claims process. Online computer form. I asked the epa how many had been submitted it is uncertain. I have not had a response. Response is to set up a command post in durango. Unified command post covering three epa regions, including the navajo ration asked the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation. Taking water available was a big response. They are also offering free tests of wells in the animas valley. There are likely more than 1000 shallow wells along the animas river. People reported discoloration of water. Shownl tests have not elevated levels in wells, though Health Authorities had a caveat on their goahead to use water. They said if you have an instant that you should probably give the infant bottled water or a different kind of water. They are worried about the manga nese levels that could still be elevated. Tiwtter, why are we not blaming the Mining Companies for leaving this toxic mess . In the case of these 23,000 abandoned mines, in particular the 230 known sites they are leaking, they are abandoned and there may be no owner to track down. So whether or not you blame them, there may not be someone to work with to try to deal with the disaster and draw funding from, perhaps. Host who owned the Gold King Mine before it was abandoned . 2005, the owner of the , the current owner is from the san juan corporation. I spoke with the man. Inhas bought a lot of mines colorado. He pledged full cooperation with the epa in cleanup. A year after he bought it, he rium in he found tellu the site. He says he has never touched the portal. He has looked at her and tried to set what is with it. Rium is a Rare Strategic metal. It is a key ingredient in the thin solar panels and has defense applications. In promoting burning mining back to silverton, he was thinking about the potential mining of tellurium at that mine. But that mine has been closed. The state declared it abandoned. Host we have about 15 minutes left with bruce finley. Joining us after traveling around the states reporting on the animas river. We have a special line for new mexico and colorado residents. On that line from fort collins, colorado, well north of where the leak happened. Good morning. Caller good moaning. I would like to say that the epa always says we respect we take responsibility, excuse me, and then there is no consequences. This is typical of the administration, where they say we take responsibility. What happens nothing. Zilch happens. I would like to ask, how did the water get in the mine . It was a dry mine, not it is full of water. How come . Host bruce finley on the water and how it got there. Great guest question. There are about four different mines in that area. There is there is one big mind. There is the red and blue need a mind to gold king. Then the mogul mine owned by todd headedness henness. Without a lot of funding to do these cleanups, with which ,equire Water Treatment plants one method short of that that the state favored is using bulkheads, concrete structures put inside mines that plug them. That creates backup of wastewater in mines. Area, visualize the mining going back a century, there is an underground maze full of tunnels up to 100 miles long. The legacy of human effort to take out minerals in those areas. Connectivity in that maze is a mystery. Natural faults and fishers as well in those tunnels. One theory for what happened is that the creation of bulkheads in the Sunnyside Mine has acted bepools of water that may willing up in the other mines. In looking at some of the epas documents on the sites, they noticed the increase in discharge in recent years from the mogul, the red and bonita, and the Gold King Mine following the installation of bulkheads in the Sunnyside Mine. That is a lot of complicated detail but it is a couple kid a problem. Following up on the comments about the epa taking responsibility, members of congress not the only ones calling for firings at the epa. Rockovich in the washington apology is not enough. The epa must fire people in the colorado spill. She will join us on this program tuesday. We will talk about this spill in colorado. In the meantime, bruce finley is with us, covering the story since it happened in the fifth. Jefferies in alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. Things to add. Jobs, myon to regular father and both my grandfathers, we all at one time had small time cattle operations. Family is no longer in the business because of these new epa regulations that has come out that do not let you on anyy cattle or horses stream or dry creek bed. Cost too much money to fence off and worried about fines from the epa from all these new regulations in the last few years. Thethis just goes to show incompetence of the epa now. If it was a private entity or corporation, they would face billions of dollars in fines. I was wondering who how will holdpa fine themselves and themselves responsible for this . It is a travesty, what the epa is trying to do. A lot of us just a lot of it is just complete nonsense. Get their self together. This is a terrible thing that happened. That beautiful river destroyed like that by somebody supposed to protect it. They need competence in the epa. I hope it comes about. You mentioned the independent investigation the epa said will happen. Do you have any idea how long that will take . Long. No idea on how to the caller, it may be of interest, a few days after the disaster as the mus tardyellow river was flowing through the town, the top officials in the area came to be town, looked at the town in the eyes, and apologized. There has been resistance in the past to the epa getting involved, for example as i superfund site, fearing the stigma and what that would do for tourism. When mining went away, people. Egan relying on tourism so there is a good bit of nostalgia for mining in that area. Some are saying the epa is incompetent, but there are probably others who are saying if they want to deal with this problem of festering, old, abandoned mines, there probably is no other agency to work with but the epa. We will probably need this partnership with. And the state and outside groups to do cooperative cleanups. On twitter, the epa is underfunded and should not be blamed. Colorado benefited from these and coloradoally should pay. You can follow the conversation cspanwj. You can always call in as well. Brian is calling in from salt lake city, utah. Epa, they say they take full responsibility. The sierra club and these wacky environmentalists, the sierra club is the epa. And thee responsibility sierra club should pay for it all. It is like the government people. I use a credit card, i do not like change. You are hired pretty much, a bunch of wax run the epa. They are also in the sierra club. Make them pay. Host do you have experience with the sierra club . Ima construction worker and i have worked with the definite. They waste more money they spend over 1000 in pickup nichols. Nickels. Mike from pennsylvania, you are on. Pennsylvania has its own department of environmental detection that is putting up mines. Does colorado have its own and if not, why not . Host bruce finley . Guest there is not a department of Environmental Protection in colorado. There are two main departments that have some oversight over the abandoned mines, though there is no special program in the Health Department on thats. The Health Department works on Water Quality issues. They will notice if there is a heavy leak coming from one of these 230 or so mines. Then they will dispatch the department of natural resources. There is a Mining Division with about 65 employees that deal mostly with active mines. There is an abandoned Mines Program in that department. They rely on funding from federal agencies, outside groups to deal with what cleanups they are able to do on their own. So there is a heavy reliance on outside groups. Not since not necessarily sierra club but Outdoor Sports groups. Because there is no wellfunded Governmental Department to deal with these mines, it is a National Environmental problem because these are the headwaters of the nations rivers. But outside groups want to get more involved, as does some of the industry. Been able toe not because of the liability problem. That has been a huge hurdle to dealing with abandoned mines. That is why they are turning to congress. Host as we have been talking to bruce finley of the denver post , we are showing pictures from post Photo Gallery of the spill online. You can check that on denver post. Com. You can follow bruce finley as well on twitter. We go to kevin. Good morning. Caller how are we doing . Host good. Caller mr. Bruce finley, i have a question. Because you are a reporter and do a lot of research, hall, every Government Agency when they need a lot of funding, there seems to be some sort of accident and then they get more money . You have the twitter dude who called in and left a message saying he supported the epa and that they were underfunded and blah, blah, blah. That proves my point. Every time a Government Agency says they are underfunded, next thing you know there is this huge disaster and they get more funding. Research, mr. Finley, and find out what happened on the oil spills. Talking aboute new money to the Environmental Protection agency for cleanup or is this coming out of current money . Guest it is not into the superfund budget. People are wondering about funding. There are people saying the state as well as the federal government ought to have more funding. As reporters, we get limited glimpses of these things. We are dispatched quickly trying to get to the scene in the early hours. It is hard to be able to understand something in general terms, as the caller suggested. Beyond funding, people are looking at liability as a scenario where you could have Practical Action to help deal with this National Environmental problem. Good samaritan legislation were Congress Asked to make it easier for groups like trout and limited to get involved. Under federal law, if a group to help do a cleanup, if they inadvertently make matters worse, as the epa ironically liablehey could be held for tens of millions of dollars damage. They are pushing this Good Samaritan legislation that would partially shield groups. If that is the case, may be there would be more people who got involved in these delicate operations around the abandoned, leaking, old mines. Your you talk about coverage of the Gold King Mine spill. Have you been to the site and how soon were you able to get to the river to view this with your own eyes . Mine. I went up to the fourwheeldrive, light rain. The thursday evening and friday evening right after that spill. With fourwheeldrive, you can get up there. A bit of a hike. The portal of the Gold King Mine more than 11,000 feet. Around timberline in high mountains. I think the peak is but need a peak, which is over 13,000 feet high. You see the river running quite orange. You can see where the initial blowout wiped out huge areas of the mountainside. Pushed down the cement creek towards the animas river. It knocked out the government suburban, where contractors and the epa employees were working. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Host if you want to see bruce finleys earlier coverage, it is at denverpost. Com. Waiting, originally from new mexico. You are on. Caller i am familiar from this area because i am originally from there. I live in columbia, but the lady let me through. With all due respect, mr. Finley , you are downplaying how the water line goes all the way from. Olorado into new mexico it goes sideways. You can look at the map. Then it goes up into utah and then comes back down and eventually into colorado. That is part of arizona. Intoit hits a little bit california. Dumps outlks out into mexico. All through there, the people, since there is such scarce water, the people all along that line deep end on the water. And my people are. They farm. That is their lifeline. There are also livestock people. That is ruined, for them. There is a potato farm that the navajo tribe has that they make potato chips out of. That is all going to be ruined. If these people, that is their water. That is what they use every day. Host have you talked to friends or relatives back there . Caller i have. Do they feeln comfortable to use this water again . Caller just as other people have said, the epa always gives this wonderful language that they speak among themselves and talk among themselves. Points, if you please allow me, you know how uranium is prevalent in the navajo reservation. During world war ii, we would not have won the war without all that uranium. Uranium tailings left open. In the 1950s, people from Columbia University were investigating how come the navajos do not have cancer . Guess what. Open inilings were left arizona as well as in new mexico. Whothere are so many people have cancer. Columbia,ia in maryland, originally from new mexico. Do you want to talk more about the downstream effects here . Guest yeah. I think some of those comments are right on the money, as far as the concerns people in the west are feeling. It is the year where we have seldom thought more about water in that Colorado River basin, from a water quantity standpoint. The drought in california. Beyond having enough water, now that this has focused attention on the quality of the water. When you see the river that is as peoplef your city, into rangle did last friday, it is horrible to see it running the color of mustard. An agrarian community, where it is settling into ditches and has yet to be flushed out. Gina mccarthy said that nature has begun to clean itself sure, there are Natural Healing the sedimentat deposited along riverbed contain heavy metals. They are doing a lot of monitoring of that and putting out a lot of Health Warnings ats, butby its cave from colorados experiences with old mines in the past, it takes decades for fisheries to recover. We have rivers and headwaters that still do not have sufficient in them. Around the west, the epa has admitted 40 of the headwaters of rivers are contaminated to some extent with these heavy metals. It is a huge problem. People feel some urgency. E. On gold king, i tried to add volume the type of happening today is from these leaking minds. These leakingrom mines. The cleveland of a gold mine emptying into waterways every few days. Host bruce finley has been covering this for the denver post. Who is isis . What are their origins . Why are they so violent . What is the u. S. Policy regarding isis . Why isnt it working . Can we really go to war against terrorism . Are we just doing the war wrong or is it wrong to say there should be a war against terrorism at all . I think those are the questions that are the most important. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q and a. Former virginia senator and Navy Secretary and my credit president ial candidate jim webb was at the iowa state very thursday, taking part in the candidate soapbox, a chance for white house hopefuls to talk to fairgoers and take questions. [indiscernible] senator . We would love to have you come speak to our members in november. We would love to have you talked to them about your beliefs. Thank you very much. I am working with arthur scott on this. [indiscernible] [laughter] you will have to sort that out for yourself. [laughter] 1, 2, 3. [indiscernible] [no audio] [indiscernible] question i wish you the best of luck. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day. You are my number two pick. I am waiting to see what joe does. Keep us in mind. [indiscernible] david . Yes. [indiscernible] [shouting] [indiscernible] [drums] what would you recommend if you were president . [indiscernible] there are people who have been there are people have been saying [indiscernible] all of these complex issues [indiscernible] should they change the name or is that history . Its up to them. [laughter] it might get a big crowd. Last year, i walked across america. I admire what we did in world. Ar ii motivation a mobilization. [indiscernible] they are doing a lot on foreign land, and we are, too. Thank you. [indiscernible] i am looking forward to the next couple of months here. I will keep invigorating the crowds. Where do you see your place in this party . The most grassroots support seems to be coming from the far left. Ask we will see we will see. I have no further comments. I have no comment on that. What do you want to try to accomplish tomorrow night . Approach . Ur www. Cspan. Org [indiscernible] thanks. [door slams] two more soapbox speeches tomorrow from the iowa state fair. First, Republican Ben Carson will be speaking live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern time. At 5 30 p. M. Eastern, George Pataki will be addressing the crowd for up to 20 minutes. You can watch all speeches at the iowa state fair on our website, as well as other road to the white house events. In todays speeches and press conferences from des moines will tonight. From president obama is on vacation with his family in Marthas Vineyard and as he does often during weekends and vacations, he is playing some golf. Here is a look at some video of that group today. [indiscernible] several 2016 president ial hopefuls were in des moines today for day three of the iowa state fair. Among the candidates were hillary clinton, rick santorum, and bernie sanders. We also saw donald trump. He flew in by helicopter and held a News Conference with reporters. [helicopter blades] [captions Copyright National cable sall