Commentary: Why punish people who try to clean up pollution? Here’s a better way forward.

In 2015, the Animas River in Colorado turned orange as three million gallons of water containing high concentrations of heavy metals and other toxins gushed from a site where the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was attempting to clean up an abandoned mine.The agency’s immediate response was a near-complete failure: officials delayed disclosing the spill to the public for nearly 24 hours; they significantly underestimated the size of the spill; and they downplayed the potentia