Mining in America

In 1990, the Summitville Mine in Colorado released a flood of cyanide, heavy metals, and sulfuric acid into the Alamosa River. The toxic pollution killed all aquatic life over 17 miles of the river and contaminated downstream farmland. The Canadian company, Galactic Resources, quickly filed for bankruptcy and abandoned the site. The mine is now an EPA Superfund site and to date, the EPA has spent over 200 million dollars for ongoing, open-ended clean-up and recovery. This is the most-expensive EPA cleanup on record and the site will generate toxic drainage and pollution into perpetuity.^[1],[2],[3]

Robert Friedland, the former CEO of Galactic Resources, then formed Golden Star Resources, and with another company, opened the Omai Gold Mine in Guyana. In 1995, the Omai Gold Mine released a major spill of cyanide and heavy metals into the Essequibo River, Guyana's main river. The disaster killed countless fish, the main food supply for people living along the river. President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana declared a 50-mile stretch of the river an Environmental Disaster Zone.^[4],[5],[6]

Repeated toxic releases from the Zortman-Landusky gold mine in Montana culminated with a release of 20 million gallons of cyanide solution onto 17 acres of land. Cyanide appeared in local tap water. Citizens and environmental groups eventually sued Pegasus, the operator, under the Clean Water Act and Pegasus later filed for bankruptcy. Acid mine drainage now contaminates almost every stream that emanates from the mine site, and federal cleanup costs will likely exceed $100 million. In 1998, Montana voters passed a law banning all open pit cyanide leach mines. The law was upheld in both the Montana and Federal Supreme Courts.^[7],[8]

The Brewer Gold Mine, located one mile west of Jefferson, South Carolina, is sited along a ridge that divides Little Fork Creek and the Lynches River. In 1990, a dam burst, flooding the Little Fork Creek with over ten million gallons of solution containing cyanide and a long list of heavy metals. The spill killed 11,000 fish and decimated 50 miles of the Lynches River. In 1999, the Brewer Company abandoned the site and the mine is now a Federal Superfund Site, placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List. Taxpayers will be paying many millions of dollars for cleanup into perpetuity.^[9],[10]

How bad can it get?  In January of 2000 in Eastern Europe, at an operation run by the Romanian-Australian firm Aurul, a mammoth spill of mining effluent poisoned the Szamos, Tisza, and Danube Rivers. The result was a major extermination of aquatic life in over 150 miles of river systems and the poisoning of water supplies for river communities in Romania, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Hungary removed well over 300 tons of dead fish from its rivers and Hungarian officials declared it the worst disaster since Chernobyl. Over two million people were affected. While not an American disaster, this disaster is a clear warning.^[11],[12]

The 1872 Mining Law

The above disasters are only a few of the most serious. For the past 137 years, mining companies have been operating under the 1872 Mining Law. This law was signed into force by President Grant to promote development of the Western U.S. The law allows companies and individuals to buy public lands rich in minerals for $5 per acre (1872 prices), mine the land to exhaustion, and pay zero royalties to taxpayers. The law provides for no environmental protection. The U.S. EPA asserts that mining operations have contaminated the headwaters of more than 40 percent of the watersheds in the West and that remediation of the half-million abandoned mines in 32 states may cost more than $35 billion (est. $50 billion in 2010) . The Clinton Administration instituted some minimal reforms, but these were overturned by the following Bush Administration.^[13]

Disasters in the making

In Minnesota, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are considering opening up the Superior National Forest to large-scale mining. Over 32 permit applications from major companies have been filed to date. If allowed to operate, these mines will create large open-pit scars, generate countless tons of toxic mining waste, and continually create drainage thick with sulfuric acid and heavy metals. All of this, in a wilderness that is rich in wildlife, is adjacent to Minnesota’s famous Boundary Waters, and is just northwest of Lake Superior.

And at possibly the most productive salmon fisheries in the world, Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay will soon be host to the largest open-pit, cyanide leach mine in North America: The Pebble Mine. This mammoth 20-square-mile gold mining complex will be located just upstream from Bristol Bay. A breach at Minnesota’s Boundary Waters or at the Pebble Mine could easily cause large-scale, long-term disaster. 

Resources

This summary is a tiny fraction of the story. From mountaintop-removal coal mining in the Appalachians, to open-pit cyanide leach mining in Alaska, the mining industry is in dire need of reform. You can learn more at these sites:

• The Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining www.pewminingreform.org/

• The Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org/

• Earth Works: www.earthworksaction.org/home.cfm/

• Natural Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org/

• Friends of the Boundary Waters: www.friends-bwca.org/

• Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition www.ohvec.org/index.html

• Save Our Cumberland Mountains www.socm.org/

• Western Organization of Resource Councils
  www.worc.org/

Copyright © Daniel Cobb