ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico and the U.S. government have reached
a $32 million settlement to address claims stemming from a 2015 mine
spill that polluted rivers in three western states. Gov. Michelle Lujan
Grisham and other state officials announced the agreement Thursday. The
spill released 3 million gallons of wastewater from the inactive Gold
King Mine in southwestern Colorado. The bright-yellow plume of arsenic,
lead and other heavy metals flowed south to New Mexico, the Navajo
Nation and Utah. Water utilities were forced to shut down intake valves
and farmers stopped drawing from the rivers as the plume moved
downstream. Colorado and the tribe also have reached multimillion-dollar
settlements.