Disaster

[Saint_]

I don't know how much the goings on in my isolated part of the world reach your ears, but we recently had quite a time of things. We never worry about natural disasters. There are no earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, wind storms, tsunamis, ice storms, volcanos, or even traffic jams here. Never have been in our recorded history.

But man-made disasters? Yeah, those can happen anywhere....

[LarsMac]

That was a mess. And there are more old mines up here just waiting to leak into the rivers and make life for the folks downstream more difficult.

Of course, back before the EPA started working on such things you guys were drinking this stuff, regularly, because all the mines just dumped their waste in the river.

Unfortunately, most folks will have forgot all of that, now and think the EPA is responsible for all the polution.

[Patsy Warnick]

From the news - right now no one is taking responsibility and the toxic mess is going into Lake Powell & other streams & drinking water wells.

Haven't heard of any effort to clean it up.

Patsy

[LarsMac]

The EPA has taken responsibility for the release, and the clean-up is being planned. At this point, though, the real task is to make sure that no more such releases take place.

There are a lot of old abandoned mines in the mountains, and they are all threatening the down-stream water systems all over the west.

Abandoned Mine Drainage | Polluted Runoff | US EPA

[Patsy Warnick]

Lars

Is this your backyard?

because it's mine - it's a serious issue. very toxic

last night's news stated no one taking responsibility - glad to hear some effort is taking place.

I'll listen to our evening news tonight.

Thanks

Patsy

[LarsMac]

Patsy Warnick;1485668 wrote: Lars

Is this your backyard?

because it's mine - it's a serious issue. very toxic

last night's news stated no one taking responsibility - glad to hear some effort is taking place.

I'll listen to our evening news tonight.

Thanks

Patsy


Our granddaughter live near there, so, yes, it is my back yard, too.

Mining runoff is serious. Interesting that we only hear about it when there is an accident like this.

And there are recent reports of testing in the Grand Canyon, that discovered mercury and other toxic metals in the Grand Canyon.

This is a long term affect of the mining industry.

[Patsy Warnick]

Lars

It's a big backyard..:-2 seriously The toxic mess should concern everyone.

This mess has been flowing for @ 2 WEEKS or more - it has entered into many tributaries.

So, finally some one is going to try & clean this up? and as you mentioned many other mines exist.

The EPA is dragging their heels. apparently "They" don't share our backyard.

Patsy

[LarsMac]

An interesting, and disturbing article on the problem

230 Colorado mines are leaking heavy metals into state rivers - The Denver Post

[Patsy Warnick]

Good article - wow - I had no idea. And we wonder where all our cancers come from.

amazing

Patsy

[G#Gill]

In the UK, if there is a leakage of that sort and it affects a water course, then it's 'all hands to the pump' and things are very quickly organised to minimise the pollution that is caused. The damage that is done to wild life and vegetation could be devastating if the authorities are slow to react.

Our land is small compared to America, so such incidents in the US would cause terrible problems if not brought under control as soon as physically possible.

The UK experienced pollution in Lancashire a short while ago, and people were told to boil all their water before use until investigations revealed that the CRYPTOSPORIDIUM bug was no longer present in the domestic water supply .......

Animal faeces or carcass likely cause of water contamination scare | Environment | The Guardian

We do also experience toxic waste being accidentally and sometimes deliberately allowed to enter our water courses (which often feed our reservoirs), and such incidents are severely and expeditiously dealt with. Companies have been very heavily fined.

[LarsMac]

You have to keep in mind that over here, this was a big, open country, with hardly any people living here even a hundred years back. When they discover silver and gold in the mid 19th century, there was nobody to give two farts about the environment. And, nobody had yet figured out the long term affects of heavy metal exposure. many of these mines have been abandoned since the turn of the 20th century. And they are all upstream from somebody, now.

If tested thoroughly, we will find that most of the rivers have some level of pollution, and the stuff is slowly making its way down to the oceans.

Unfortunately, no one has ever taken responsibility for the stuff, and the perpetrators are all now long dead.

The pollution was identified in the 1970s and the EPA has been working to mitigate damage and prevent continued pollution of downstream water courses for the last 30 years or so.

I offer another article for you reading pleasure.

Animas River spill: Root causes and continuing threats | TheHill

From this article:

...

First, although the mistakes by EPA’s contractor were the immediate cause of the discharge of some 3 million gallons of wastewater, the actual source of the pollution was an unremediated mineral mine, one of many such abandoned mines across Colorado and the American West. In fact, some 20,000 abandoned mine sites in southwestern Colorado are the sad legacy of an archaic—yet still unreformed—1874 federal mining statute that encourages excessive mining on sensitive public lands by permitting private mining companies to reap vast profits through mineral extraction while paying absurdly low royalties to the public treasury. In all, there are roughly 500,000 abandoned mine sites across the nation. They constitute a ticking time bomb that could cause additional, massive and spontaneous toxic discharges into rivers at any time.

Second, it’s worth recalling that long before the recent spill the Animas River was contaminated with mining wastes and other pollutants. Pre-spill testing revealed excessive levels of zinc, copper, cadmium and other metals, along with high concentrations of human fecal coliform bacteria. Moreover, still more damaging pollution incidents have taken place in the same vicinity in past years, including a disastrous 1975 discharge to the Animas of metal-loaded mine tailings and a discharge of roughly 500 million gallons of wastewater in 1978. That’s no excuse for the mistakes made in this incident. Nevertheless, it’s an example of why EPA was in the vicinity to begin with: to clean up a huge mess of someone else’s creation....

[Smaug]

LarsMac;1485698 wrote: You have to keep in mind that over here, this was a big, open country, with hardly any people living here even a hundred years back. When they discover silver and gold in the mid 19th century, there was nobody to give two farts about the environment. And, nobody had yet figured out the long term affects of heavy metal exposure. many of these mines have been abandoned since the turn of the 20th century. And they are all upstream from somebody, now.

If tested thoroughly, we will find that most of the rivers have some level of pollution, and the stuff is slowly making its way down to the oceans.

Unfortunately, no one has ever taken responsibility for the stuff, and the perpetrators are all now long dead.

The pollution was identified in the 1970s and the EPA has been working to mitigate damage and prevent continued pollution of downstream water courses for the last 30 years or so.

I offer another article for you reading pleasure.

Animas River spill: Root causes and continuing threats | TheHill

From this article:


Sounds like trying to hold the tide back with a broom! A classic example of short-term profit (for an industrialist) versus long-term damage ( for the population affected). And they want to frack wholesale? Time to 'go green' and stop trying to get the last dregs of fossil pollutants out from the bottom of the barrel!

Will they ever learn?

"Only after the last tree has been cut down,

only after the last river has been poisoned,

only after the last fish has been caught.

only then will you find - that money cannot be eaten"

Chief Seattle

[LarsMac]

Another article on what we are dealing with "upstream"

Draining old mines foul Denver's watershed every day with contaminants - The Denver Post