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Colorado mine owner seeks US compensation over 2015 spill

  DURANGO, Colo. (AP) — The owner of an inactive Colorado mine that was the source of a 2015 spill that fouled rivers in three Western states has sued the U.S. government. The lawsuit filed this week seeks nearly $3.8 million in compensation for use of his land in the federal cleanup. The Durango Herald reports that Todd Hennis claims the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t paid him for using land near the Gold King Mine since the blowout. A EPA-led crew inadvertently triggered the spill during excavation work. It sent a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals into rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The EPA didn't immediately comment on the lawsuit.