It’s been more than a year since a Colorado mine waste spill contaminated waters across three states and the Navajo Nation. And Navajo President Russell Begaye is renewing the tribe’s call for reimbursement for farmers affected by the incident.
Begaye says the Gold King Mine spill was devastating for Navajo farmers, and the $445,000 the Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded in response is only a quarter of what the spill has cost the tribe so far. Begaye was among the tribal, state and local officials who participated recently in a discussion marking the one-year anniversary of the spill.
An EPA-led crew triggered the spill during preliminary cleanup work on Aug. 5, 2015. Three million gallons of wastewater carrying arsenic, lead and other heavy metals tainted rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
