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Documents: Workers had no way to issue warning after spill

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater accident, in the spillway about a quarter mile downstream from the mine outside Silverton, Colo. Federal and state regulators underestimated the potential for a toxic blowout from the Colorado mine, despite warnings more than a year earlier that a large-volume spill of wastewater was possible, an internal government investigation released Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 found. The massive spill occurred on Aug. 5 when a government cleanup crew doing excavation work triggered the release of an estimated 3 million gallons of sludge that fouled hundreds of miles of rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater accident, in the spillway about a quarter mile downstream from the mine outside Silverton, Colo. Federal and state regulators underestimated the potential for a toxic blowout from the Colorado mine, despite warnings more than a year earlier that a large-volume spill of wastewater was possible, an internal government investigation released Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 found. The massive spill occurred on Aug. 5 when a government cleanup crew doing excavation work triggered the release of an estimated 3 million gallons of sludge that fouled hundreds of miles of rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File) FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, water flows through a series of sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater accident, in the spillway about a quarter mile downstream from the mine outside Silverton, Colo. Federal and state regulators underestimated the potential for a toxic blowout from the Colorado mine, despite warnings more than a year earlier that a large-volume spill of wastewater was possible, an internal government investigation released Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 found. The massive spill occurred on Aug. 5 when a government cleanup crew doing excavation work triggered the release of an estimated 3 million gallons of sludge that fouled hundreds of miles of rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

By Associated Press 4 min read

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Members of a federal cleanup crew were initially trapped and unable to warn downstream communities that they had accidentally unleashed toxic waste water from a Colorado gold mine, according to government documents released Thursday.

During that time, a trickle of water started by excavation work at the site grew to a torrent and 3 million gallons eventually poured out of the remote Gold King Mine near Silverton, fouling downstream rivers in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency released the documents after coming under increasing political pressure to explain how the Aug. 5 accident occurred and why it took so long to issue the warning.

The documents show the site outside the mine was largely destroyed just 20 minutes after the spill began, with the rust-colored water also washing out the sole access road and submerging a Chevrolet Suburban used by the workers.

With no satellite phone or cellphone service, workers had to use a two-way radio to notify a state regulator inspecting another mine in the area. The state worker notified outside authorities 96 minutes after the spill was first triggered, according to the documents.