When the Gold King Mine spill occurred last summer in southern Colorado, Oklahoma U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe jumped all over the issue in his capacity as chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He blamed the Environmental Protection Agency for the spill of toxic liquids into the Animas River north of Silverton.
Now Senators John McCain and John Barrasso who sit on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs are asking for a Justice Department investigation of what happened, how it happened and who was responsible. The two recently held a field hearing in Phoenix, Arizona and in a May 3 letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, said there is sufficient information that “exists to warrant an investigation by the Justice Department of whether EPA employees or contractors may have committed crimes in connection with the spill, including but not limited to criminal violations of federal environmental laws, criminal negligence and obstruction.”
In their letter, McCain and Barrasso said “EPA officials have already tried to obstruct” the investigation of the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General.