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Today's Local News: What happens when a mine has a catastrophic failure into a large river?

4K views 70 replies 31 participants last post by  psycho 
#1 ·
#6 ·
This really is the shits, and will have a greater impact than just locally I am afraid. Vibes man.

Pond my ass, try lake.
 
#11 ·
Hope they do more about this than they've been doing about the raw sewage from Victoria!
Unless it directly affects First Nations, and they proceed to sue the Canadian and provincial governments and everybody else involved, I suspect there will be nothing really happening but hand wringing.
 
#12 ·
The Blackfoot River upstream from Missoula was devastated by mining many years ago. It was almost sterile and many people gave it up for dead. The TU chapter, local fisherman and the Montana WF&G worked together to revive the river to the shape that it is in today. If not for their efforts, that great river would have been a graveyard.
 
#14 ·
During a trip this past April on the Blackfoot, my party was stopped by a F&W agent who informed us not to eat the fish in the Blackfoot; it had been discovered that the lumber mill in Bonner had unknowingly been polluting the water and contaminant levels in the fish made them unsafe to eat. It fished well and don't take trout anyways.

Hearing that locally too?

The Blackfoot River upstream from Missoula was devastated by mining many years ago. It was almost sterile and many people gave it up for dead. The TU chapter, local fisherman and the Montana WF&G worked together to revive the river to the shape that it is in today. If not for their efforts, that great river would have been a graveyard.
 
#13 ·
... "This is a serious incident that should not have happened," Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said Tuesday. "We are devoting every appropriate resource working with local officials to clean up the site, mitigate any impacts to communities and the environment, and investigate the cause of the breach. We will determine the cause of the event and we are determined to prevent an incident like this from happening again."
..... and Blah, Blah, Blah... on and on it goes.
Haven't we heard this B.S. before?
And this is what a Canadian Mining Co. wants to put in at Mazama on the Methow!!!
 
#15 ·
As you know, the mining industry in the Rocky Mtn states is still a very powerful industry with a lot of political power. This will never change. The industry is threatening fisheries like the Clark Fork, Yellowstone and the Blackfoot as we speak and the only thing that is slowing them down is the legislation by national environmental groups. It is always portrayed as the environment vs. jobs and it is something that local communities will stand and fight for. When the mine in Troy, Mt closed and then the mill in Libby, MT closed 20 years ago, the unemployment in Libby shot up to about 34%. Both industries blamed the environmentalists, when in actuality it was a combination of low profits for both businesses and poor management. The mining industry has had free rains in this neck of the woods for several generations and getting changes made for environmental reasons moves like the glaciers.
 
#16 ·
i am sure that mining company had paperwork for bankruptcy while the breach was happening... just like what happened on the East Fork Lewis.. and the gravel mine there... my guess is they get away scott free...

Now who can blame the tribe up on the Skeena for kicking those people out
 
#18 ·
Here is what was dumped into the effluent pond in the fiscal year 2013..

Mount Polley mine on-site disposal in 2013:
  • Arsenic (and its compounds): 406 tonnes
  • Lead (and its compounds) 177 tonnes
  • Nickel (and its compounds) 326 tonnes
  • Vanadium (except when in an alloy): 5,047 tonnes
  • Zinc (and its compounds): 2,169 tonnes
  • Cadmium (and its compounds): 6 tonnes
  • Cobalt (and its compounds): 475 tonnes
  • Phosphorus (total): 41,640 tonnes
  • Copper (and its compounds): 18,413 tonnes
  • Antimony (and its compounds) 14 tonnes
  • Manganese (and its compounds): 20,988 tonnes
  • Mercury (and its compounds): 3 tonnes
  • Selenium (and its compounds): 46 tonnes
 
#19 ·
Here is what was dumped into the effluent pond in the fiscal year 2013..

Mount Polley mine on-site disposal in 2013:
  • Arsenic (and its compounds): 406 tonnes
  • Lead (and its compounds) 177 tonnes
  • Nickel (and its compounds) 326 tonnes
  • Vanadium (except when in an alloy): 5,047 tonnes
  • Zinc (and its compounds): 2,169 tonnes
  • Cadmium (and its compounds): 6 tonnes
  • Cobalt (and its compounds): 475 tonnes
  • Phosphorus (total): 41,640 tonnes
  • Copper (and its compounds): 18,413 tonnes
  • Antimony (and its compounds) 14 tonnes
  • Manganese (and its compounds): 20,988 tonnes
  • Mercury (and its compounds): 3 tonnes
  • Selenium (and its compounds): 46 tonnes
Yummy !
 
#21 ·
Yup. Look at the effects of the tremolite asbestos poisonings in Libby, MT due to the mine there. Over two hundred people dead and still counting in a population just over 2000. W.R. Grace and his board of thugs never were held accountable. Of course, he did the same thing in California years earlier when he dumped toxic chemicals into the river, killing and injuring hundreds of people in that town. Remember the movie, A Civil Action with John Travolta. Yep, that was W.R. Grace and his thugs at the source of that crime as well. So, the US taxpayers pay to clean up his superfund site and the cherry on top was when Grace charged the government to dump the toxic waste back into his closed mine. And, the prick still struts around in Libby like nothing ever happened.
 
#23 ·
Now, that is where things start to get really interesting. I suspect a whole team of psychiatrists could spend the rest of their lives working on that scenario. The short version: After a local reporter at the Spokane newspaper caught wind that there was a cover up in Libby, and uncovered the poisonings going on in the community, the board of directors at the mine confessed that their exposure to the tremolite could be potentially fatal. Most of the miners, needing the work (sound like we have heard that before) made the decision to go on working despite the potential health effects (I am sure the board gave them all the facts). It wasn't until the miners found out that not only had their health been exposed but they had likely taken the poison home to their loved ones, did they stand up against the company and force the board to do something. Many of the locals (including some who lost loved ones) never blamed the company. They actually believe that it came with the hazards of the mining industry and that the benefits outweighed the hazards. So, Grace filed bankruptcy, kicked in some money to the local hospital for treating the affected and most of the town people turned their cheeks and went back to their day to day.
 
#30 ·
Do you have any pictures of the impacts on fish?

Currently I know of tons of people freaking out, but unless I see proof of dead fish masses/other organisms affected, I am taking it as a "minor inconvenience" (relative to the grand scheme of course)
Can you be any more dumb? Go away
 
#28 ·
I take thousands of tons of heavy metals dumped into our watersheds as serious issues. I don't need to see the end of all life to be concerned about the negative impact that this situation can/may/might cause. I am not saying you are wrong in your way of thinking. I think it is nearsighted and naive, at best, but not necessarily wrong.
 
#29 ·
I take thousands of tons of heavy metals dumped into our watersheds as serious issues. I don't need to see the end of all life to be concerned about the negative impact that this situation can/may/might cause. I am not saying you are wrong in your way of thinking. I think it is nearsighted and naive, at best, but not necessarily wrong.
Hmm interesting.

Just a little background, I like to get all the facts and numbers straight before I come to a full conclusion. With what has been getting down here to the valley, there is no reason to believe anything except for a flood accident has happened in regards to fish health.

Trust me when I say I am more concerned about the sockeye that are going up the fraser. If they are unable to make it due to premature death, then the ecosystem is at risk due to a lack of nutrients.

Certainly not nearsighted, or naive (at least in my opinion)
 
#35 ·
Years ago the TP&W did some research and found that the population of redfish along the Texas gulf coast was steadily declining. This led to further research and eventually they linked the decline to the constant dumping of toxic bi-products into the bays and estuaries by the petroleum companies (refineries). Through the work of the state fish and game and the state GCCA, new legislation to stop this dumping, the redfish population turned from its downward spiral and started to once again move back towards the mean population. It didn't take mass fish kills to awaken to a need to stop the made-made effects that was harming these fish. Science has proven time and again that most of these toxins create long-term insidious negative effects that might not be obvious to the naked eye.
 
#37 ·
They haven't tested all that muck yet. Nore have they looked at the sediment load on the gravels in that area used by shore spawning Sockeye. Where is DFO and their crew to charge the mine with putting all that sediment in Salmon bearing waters? That is a federal offense. This nonsense about it not being safe is a cop out of the first order. Five gallon bucket hung on a long line from a helicopter and you have your sample. Both governments are dragging their feet as much as possible. Both asshole governments took campaign money from that mine so it is really difficult to kick the mine in the gonads. I will wait for the private samples before I get excited about the readings from the government boys.
 
#40 ·
Depends on how the material is processed on site. I would assume (since from air photos it appears to be a placer mine) that there is a fair amount of "dirt" in the tailings lake. However, I could not tell exactly how the material was processed on site. In any event, Cu in rocks (particularly in fine material as the mine materials appear to be) readily dissolves in water. I would also guess some portion of the processing procedure involves reducing the source material to a powder and then some form of chemical extraction. I did not see a typical leach pit, but I would assume cyanide is being used to pull the gold into solution. Maybe that is offsite somewhere.

In any event (like I said) I would assume the pulverized material readily yields a metal heavy solution when water passes through it.

The same thing happened in the silver valley ID, and a number of other places where particulate materials from hard rock and placer deposits was left exposed to the atmosphere.
 
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