U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich spoke at a U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) oversight hearing on the Gold King Mine spill that occurred on August 5. The committee examined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) response to the accident, which caused a large plume of bright orange toxic waste to spill into the Animas and San Juan Rivers and pollute the Four Corners region, and the subsequent impact it had on the environment and economies of local states, communities, and Indian tribes.