Pete McKay, San Juan County commissioner in Colorado, looks at the site, Monday, Aug. 10, 2015, where the Gold King Mine breach occurred, north of Silverton, Colo. Local officials in towns downstream from where millions of gallons of mine waste spilled into the San Juan River are demanding answers about possible long-term threats to the water supply. The 3 million gallons of mine waste included high concentrations of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. Workers with the EPA accidentally unleashed the spill Wednesday as they inspected the abandoned mine site. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times via AP)

DENVER | A southwestern Colorado congressman says a Superfund designation isn’t the best way to clean up leaking mines in his district but that he won’t stand in the way after local leaders endorsed it.

Republican Rep. Scott Tipton said Thursday a Superfund cleanup would be overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which caused an August mine spill that prompted the cleanup.

Tipton says it would be better to fund the effort another way. He didn’t offer specifics.

The EPA on Wednesday proposed adding the Gold King Mine and other sites to the Superfund list. Officials in Silverton and San Juan County and Gov. John Hickenlooper have endorsed it.

An EPA-led cleanup crew inadvertently triggered a spill at the Gold King that sent tainted wastewater into Colorado, New Mexico and Utah rivers.