A year after a mine waste spill turned their river a weird yellow-orange, residents of a Colorado mountain town are taking a break from the aftermath for a party that includes beer the color of the spill.
They're also taking a few jabs at the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which accidentally caused the 3-million-gallon spill at the Gold King Mine on Aug. 5, 2015.
Silverton is staging "Super FunDays" this weekend, a play on the Superfund cleanup expected to get underway in the distant future.
It includes "Environmental Pork Agency" sandwiches and a beer that mimics the color of the spill.Floyd Barela, brewmaster at Golden Block Brewery, sent 9NEWS images of the beer. He says he kept his IPA "muddy" and added blood orange for the color. The EPA declined to comment.The spill sent wastewater containing arsenic, lead and other heavy metals into the Animas River near Silverton, and the pollution reached New Mexico and Utah. Lawsuits and investigations are still active.By the way, we checked. Hays Griswold, the guy in charge of the EPA team that accidentally blew the mine, is still working for the EPA.And the mine still leaks nearly seven hundred thousand gallons daily.
