The WSJ reports that:
An EPA cleanup crew on Aug. 5 accidentally triggered a breach in an abandoned gold mine in the southwestern part of Colorado, releasing an estimated three million gallons of toxic, mustard-tinted sludge through a river system that also spans New Mexico and Utah. The sludge, which flowed down the Animas River and emptied into the San Juan River in New Mexico, contains such contaminants as lead and arsenic from the Gold King Mine, north of Silverton, Colo., one of thousands of abandoned mines across the western U.S. ...
“The EPA’s initial response to this point has been slow and insufficient,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) said in an emailed statement. ...
“Nobody is going to take the attention away from EPA’s incompetence on this,” [Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.)] said. “If this was a private company, all hell would be breaking loose.”
Indeed, as BP employees and shareholders can attest.
Obviously, you can't throw a government agency in jail, while fining one would simply circulate money through the government. But what if we applied the responsible officer doctrine to the government officials at fault and held them civilly and criminally liable for this sort of gross misconduct? Maybe the government would become a lot more efficient.
