"DENVER -- The release of 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of toxic wastewater from a defunct southwestern Colorado gold mine that was triggered by the Environmental Protection Agency was preventable, a government review of the spill concluded on Thursday.

A 132-page report conducted by engineers with the U.S Bureau of Reclamation said the Aug. 5 blowout from the Gold King Mine above Silverton, Colorado, was due to a combination of factors “spanning several decades.”

Nearby mining operations and tunneling beneath the century-old stake led to changing groundwater conditions that the EPA failed to anticipate when it reopened a portal on the site in recent years, the report said."

Keith Coffman reports for Reuters October 22, 2015. [2]