The Navajo Nation sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, one year after 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater spilled into three states from an abandoned Colorado gold mine.
In a court filing, the Navajo tribe alleged the EPA and other parties "recklessly" burrowed into the Gold King Mine in 2015, releasing waste into water upstream from the tribe's land.
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A year later, the waterways remain contaminated and the Navajo people have yet to be compensated, according to the complaint that also names EPA contractor Environmental Restoration, the Kinross Gold Corp and Sunnyside Gold Corp.
"One of the Navajo people's most important sources of water for life and livelihood was poisoned with some of the worst contaminants known to man, including lead and arsenic," the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico said.
Last August, a contractor was hired by the EPA to slow seepage at the abandoned Gold King mine in southwestern Colorado. However, the derelict mine discharged toxic sludge into a creek that feeds the Animas and San Juan rivers and traversed into New Mexico, ultimately emptying into Lake Powell in Utah.
In its suit, the Navajo Nation cited millions of dollars of damage to its people and a lack of "any meaningful recovery," pointing to the tribe's heavy reliance on the now-contaminated San Juan River.
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"Efforts to be made whole over the past year have been met with resistance, delays, and second-guessing," it wrote. The EPA and the other defendants "ignored warning signs for years" and "failed to prepare for known risks of a mine blowout," it added.
The EPA has said it takes responsibility for the cleanup and that it has made more than $29 million available in response, including more than $1 million to Navajo Nation.