SALT LAKE CITY — Attorney General Sean Reyes will get a firsthand look Wednesday at the Colorado mine site that spewed millions of gallons of toxic water into southeastern Utah.

Reyes expects to start gathering evidence that could lead to legal action, though he said he wants to give the Environmental Protection Agency a chance to make good on its word to pay for any damage from the spill.

But Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, co-chairwoman of the State Water Development Commission, said she's uncomfortable with that.

"The more time we give them, the more damage is done," Dayton said during a commission meeting Tuesday. The commission includes legislators, county leaders, water district supervisors, and environmental and agricultural interests.

Reyes said he doesn't believe it shows weakness on Utah's part to take time to assess how the agency intends hold itself accountable for the disaster as EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy promised.

"I would like to see what that proposal is," he said, adding that if the agency doesn't live up to its commitment, the state would consider legal remedies.

EPA and contract workers accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Animas River on Aug. 5 as they inspected the idle Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. The spill released heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury downstream in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and the Navajo Nation, raising concerns about long-term environmental damage.

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Water from mine spill reaches Lake Powell

Contaminated water from a Colorado mine has made its way to Lake Powell, leaving Utah officials wondering about possible long-term effects.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman will join Reyes on the mine tour.

Reyes listed several areas where Utah could be compensated for damages, including emergency response, water testing, restoration of natural resources, and lost revenue and taxes.

Heavy metals in the water could also affect crops, wildlife and even people in the future, he said.

"All these questions we don't have answers for yet," Reyes said. "That will probably be the back-and-forth with the agency in terms from trying to fix a cost for reimbursement to the state."

Alan Matheson, Utah Department of Environmental Quality executive director, said taking water samples four times a day in four locations along the San Juan River has been very expensive and not part of the budget.

And it will continue to cost money as the state monitors water quality over time to ensure Utahns are safe.

"This event has been tremendously disturbing," Matheson said.

Dayton asked Reyes, who met with his counterparts from Colorado and New Mexico in Durango, Colorado, last week, if he was able to find out whether the spill was "an accident on purpose" to qualify for federal cleanup money, or if "this really was an accident accident."

Reyes said in talking to some of the locals there was "some suspicion that the spill was not purely inadvertent. But I don't have anything more to report on that."

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, also questioned whether the spill was intentional, noting the EPA downplayed the severity and didn't notify the states for a couple of days. Noel represents San Juan and Kane counties, the two areas in Utah impacted by the contamination.

An outside entity needs to investigate why and how the spill happened, he said.

"Is this a criminal act? Is it a negligence act? Is it a gross negligence act?" Noel said. "Yes, yes, yes, is what I'm hearing."

The EPA announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of the Interior will assess the factors that led to the incident and issue a report within 60 days.

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