Tests conducted earlier this week are showing that levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxic elements in the river are returning to safe levels. It’s important to note that, especially in rural areas, drinking water from wells contains naturally-occurring levels of these elements. However many are concerned that, though the water itself may not be hazardous, the river’s sediments may be toxic and remain so for years to come.
Accidents and disasters — especially life-threatening ones, though the Animas spill is not known to have harmed anyone yet — often spawn conspiracy theories. The most popular theory claims that the EPA purposely polluted the river as a way to obtain extra funding available for cleanup. Under this classic “follow the money” scenario the EPA decided the best way to get free up money for Superfund sites – as this could potentially be designated – was to create a disaster.
One typical conspiracy commenter opined, “I am thinking there were multiple reasons for something like this — funding, but also Agenda21 — re-wilding of the west — they want most all of the US to be “NO HUMANS ALLOWED” … plus if people get sick/die from the heavy metals in the process, it’s the sacrifice that must be made (from their perspective).”
If this conspiracy is true, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy has made an incredible sacrifice of her agency’s credibility — and potentially her own career — to secure extra government money for her agency. This is akin to claiming that police are committing crimes in order to inflate the crime rate and justify bigger budgets.
As evidence of this conspiracy, proponents point to a Letter to the Editor published shortly before the spill in a regional Colorado newspaper written by a retired geologist which seems to predict that the EPA is up to something nefarious.
Ironically the letter actually contradicts key claims made by the conspiracy theorists who promote it. It does not predict an intentional spill of mine water into the Animas (or any other) river by the EPA but instead that well-meaning efforts at preventing seepage of mine waste might result in water being backed up and releasing on its own.
Furthermore a careful reading of the letter clearly states that the EPA’s hidden agenda is not — as the conspiracy theorists claim – gaining access to Superfund money through creating a natural disaster but instead “construction of a treatment plant” for treating existing mine waste. In fact the writer explicitly states that “with a budget of $8.2 billion and 17,000 employees, the EPA needs new, big projects to justify their existence.”
In other words according to the geologist, the EPA’s struggle is not getting more money but using the money it has.
Conspiracy Theories
It may seem odd that an obvious environmental accident would prompt conspiracies, but there are several reasons for this. In the world of conspiracies, as the saying goes, “there are no accidents.”
Princess Diana’s death from a car “accident,” for example, was in fact a cleverly disguised assassination by the British intelligence agencies — or those upset at her romance with an Arab man, or any number of others who supposedly wanted Diana dead. Even hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis, and other obviously natural disasters are suspected of being part of a dark conspiracy, including the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Another element is the paradoxical assumptions that conspiracy theorists make regarding government competence: On one hand they believe that no one would be stupid or careless enough to “accidentally” trigger a breach in a retaining lake of mine waste with heavy equipment, but on the other hand they claim that the government sloppily leaves clues about what they’re up to — for those clever enough to find them (such as those who misread the Letter to the Editor mentioned above).
And, of course, conspiracy theories abound on the subject of health, with many convinced that doctors and Big Pharma are colluding to keep cancer cures off the market and push disease-causing vaccines on the public for the sake of profits.
Read more at Discovery News
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