MEET HAYS GRISWOLD, THE GOLD KING MINE MAN FROM EPA: Griswold was the On-Scene Coordinator at the facility the day in August 2015 when the mine was breached, unleashing a three-million gallon flood of dangerous mine waste into Colorado’s Animus River, the drinking water source for people in three states and the Navajo Nation. Suspended in that flood were an estimated 880,000 pounds of toxic elements like lead and arsenic.

These facts are known now because the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Ethan Barton ignored the avalanche of evasions, half-truths, glittering generalities and unexplained delays that for months characterized the response from Environmental Protection Agency officials about what looks increasingly like a major environmental disaster caused by the agency.

To date, neither Griswold, nor anybody else at EPA or any of the several other federal agencies active in the Gold King Mine region or connected to the disaster in some way has been disciplined, much less fired. Ultimately, taxpayers will pay millions of dollars in damages for the government’s actions that created a serious public health threat and inflicted long-term environmental damage that could have been avoided.

And in case you are wondering, Hays Griswold is not a known relative of Clark Griswold.