EPA Contractor Involved in Colorado Spill Identified as Environmental Restoration

Fenton, Mo., company was tasked with mitigating pollutants from closed mine

ENLARGE
The Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released approximately three million gallons of wastewater into Cement Creek, in Silverton, Colo., which feeds into the Animas River. PHOTO: THEO STROOMER/GETTY IMAGES


By AMY HARDER,
ALEXANDRA BERZON and
JENNIFER S. FORSYTH
Aug. 12, 2015 5:24 p.m. ET24 COMMENTS

Missouri-based Environmental Restoration LLC was the contractor whose work caused a mine spill in Colorado that released an estimated three million gallons of toxic sludge into a major river system, according to a person familiar with the matter and government documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which was overseeing the servicing of the mine at the time, has said an outside contractor was using heavy equipment to enter the Gold King Mine when it breached a debris dam, letting out wastewater that had built up inside the mine. The EPA hasn’t publicly named the contractor.

Officials at the company, based in Fenton, Mo., didn’t return multiple calls for comment.

According to various government documents, Environmental Restoration had signed an agreement to provide emergency protection from pollutants from the Gold King Mine, near Durango, Colo., in the southwestern part of the state. The spill has fouled the nearby Animas River, turning its water mustard yellow in the initial several days after the spill on Aug. 5.

The money to fund the Gold King Mine cleanup comes out of EPA’s Superfund budget, according to Scott Sherman, a former deputy assistant administrator at EPA during the George W. Bush administration who oversaw Superfund and other waste programs.

Environmental Restoration is one of the largest EPA emergency cleanup contractors. It is the main provider for the EPA’s emergency cleanup and rapid response needs in the region that covers Colorado, as well as in several other parts of the country. It worked on the cleanup for some of the highest-profile disasters in recent history, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack Ground Zero cleanup, and the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico spill remediation, according to the company’s website.

From October 2007 through this month, Environmental Restoration has been awarded $381 million in federal contracts, according to government procurement data compiled on USAspending.gov. The vast majority—more than $364 million—of that total was for work for the EPA. About 10%, or $37 million of the EPA’s awarded amount, was for contracts within the state of Colorado.

The Gold King mine wasn’t a designated Superfund cleanup site, which would have required far more funding. Rather, Environmental Restoration was trying to stop wastewater from escaping the mine at the time of the breach, government documents indicate.

The massive spill—which resulted in dramatic images of mustard-colored wastewater laced with heavy metals—highlights the market for environmental cleanup firms, a lucrative government contracting business. The company was listed by an engineering trade publication last year as one of the top 100 environmental firms in the country, with revenue estimated at close to $80 million.

Write to Amy Harder at amy.harder@wsj.com and Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com

http://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-cont...ion-1439414672