The rush to see a major conspiracy by the EPA around the recent Animus River contamination in Silverton, Colorado is premature.

It is much more an example of what can happen with the current political disconnect in this country.

Conspiracy theorists center their argument around a letter to the editor of the local newspaper by Dave Taylor, a retired geologist with 47 years of experience in the field.

Based on his professional experience, Taylor correctly predicted, one week before the massive spill, that the EPA effort to divert leakage from mines in the area to holding pools would result in disaster.

“Eventually, without a doubt, the water will find a way out and will exfiltrate uncontrollably through connected abandoned shafts, drifts, raises, fractures and possibly from talus on the hillsides,” Taylor wrote in his letter.

Taylor said the EPA plan would eventually increase contamination in the Animus River and its Cement Creek tributary. He speculated this was the EPA plan all along so the agency could designate a Superfund site.

What Taylor did not mention, but locals in the area know, is contamination in the river was increasing slowly on its own.