Don't tell: EPA secretly dumped 15,000 tons of hazardous waste down mineshaft in 2005

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s recent stunt of gulping down a glass of water drawn directly from the Animas River was a solid show of faith in the EPA (not to mention nature’s ability to clean itself), but we wouldn’t recommend he make it a habit — it turns out the EPA has more “accidents” than make the headlines.

The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity reports that, according to a mine owner, the EPA has been secretly releasing toxic runoff into the water over a period of years.

Another bombshell in disastrous #Animas spill: Mine owner says EPA secretly dumped 15K tons of waste in 2005. http://t.co/Vwxdy14HZw

— Franklin Center (@FranklinCenter) August 19, 2015

Todd Hennis, who owns numerous mines, says that in 2005 the EPA secretly dumped up to 15,000 tons of poisonous waste into another mine 124 miles away, collecting tons of sludge from two Leadville mines and secretly dumping it down the shaft of the New Mikado mine without notifying him. “If a private company had done this, they would’ve been fined out of existence,” said Hennis.

That poor, picked-on #EPA is an unaccountable federal agency, wielding immense power, with 15,000 staff and an $8 billion budget #copolitics

— Colorado Senate GOP (@ColoSenGOP) August 18, 2015