Borrego Sun - Since 1949

Three million gallons of toxic water were accidentally released from the Gold King Mine in Silverton, Colorado on Aug. 5 by workers from the Environmental Protection Agency. The toxic water contains heavy metals, including arsenic and lead and has turned the river water orange-yellow. The water is flowing through the San Juan National Forest and the contaminated water will carry on through Utah. It is expected to reach Lake Powell by Wednesday. Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River on the border between Utah and Arizona. Lake Powell is currently the largest reservoir in the U.S. in terms of capacity of water currently held, depth and surface area. Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.) The compact specifies the Upper Basin states provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre feet to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada and California.)