Colorado Orange Juice

 Seems to be the case across the extractive industries, look at the tar sand mining in Alberta, coal strip mines in the Powder River Basin, mountain top removal in Appalachia. Take the money and run, privatize the profits, socialize the liabilities.

No, strict enforcement only requires prioritization, will, and follow-through.

We have EPA/OSHA/DOL inspectors in our region spending way too much time trying to screw asbestos abatement contractors over administrative issues or interpretations of regulatory gray areas. Then when they find some horribly egregious violation, they let the offenders get off with a slap on the wrist and fines that don't even amount to the cost of abatement-by-the-rules.

I don't doubt your word about circumstances thousands of miles from Colorado. But you quoted part of my comment about Colorado in a thread about Colorado.

The big problem with the area I've referred to is not a lack of EPA priorities. It is a cumulative lack of the right priorities for a century by mining companies, by local citizens, and by their local, state, and federal representatives.

Enforcement of regulations does require funding. And priorities require funding. Nowhere is that more clear than in the topic of this thread. It is not the regulatory agency, the EPA, that has had the wrong priority here. Superfund cleanup by its very name implies funding. It can not be done without it. People do not work for free — whether among the mining companies, concerned citizens, local and state officials, or the EPA.

Who has long had the wrong priorities here?

It is the mining companies that for decades have had the wrong priorities — because the right priorities would require funding out of their profit margins. And it is also the local tourist industry that has had the wrong priorities. It has opposed the superfund priority designation that cleanup would require — because local business does not want the adverse publicity that goes with funding the cleanup. You can't blame all that on the EPA and something you've witnessed two thousand miles from Colorado — no matter how accurate your description above.

 "House science committee grills EPA over Gold King Mine spill"  dpo.st/1VOEEBC  Looks more like partisan bickering than anything constructive.

Better late than never, I guess. Thanks for the link. Excerpts from the article:

My dad and brother and their wives were down in that area for several days a couple weeks after the spill. And while their vacations were not focused on that incident, they did comment upon the yellow residue in many places along the river.

They took a ride on the narrow-gauge railroad and drove the "million-dollar highway" north of Durango. Both are remarkable for following long drop-offs along canyon walls. The lack of guardrails along the highway made my dad uncomfortable.

Tourism seemed neither robust nor entirely lacking when they were there. But it sounds like, from the article, that it was pressure from downstream users of the river that has finally persuaded city and country officials to accept the superfund designation.

Let's hope the cleanup succeeds.

Criminal investigation under way. www.denverpost.com/2016/08/01/gold-king-mine-spill-criminal-investigation/