"The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said Monday it will begin investigation the Aug. 5 incident that sent 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into Colorado’s Animas River.

In a memo to EPA officials, Assistant Inspector General Carolyn Copper said her office would request documents and interview staffers at both the EPA’s Washington headquarters and its regional offices during the investigation.

The focus, she said, will be the “cause of, and the EPA’s response to” the spill at the shuttered Gold King Mine in Silverton, Colo."

Devin Henry reports for The Hill August 17, 2015. [2]