To: Chuca Marsh who wrote (581 ) 5/11/1999 4:16:00 PM From: richard badauskas Respond to of 817
Acid mine drainage is the vast legacy of the mining industry to date. All over the world there are poisonous pools threatening to further contaminate the surrounding environment, while current mining activity compounds the problem, in North China, for example, the use of cyanide is banned (very small quantities of cyanide released into waterways results in massive fish kills). The Chinese are not known as being environmentally pro-active yet they have banned cyanide because IT THREATENS THE FOOD CHAIN for a large population. The main problem, and a lingering one at that, is the oxidation and leaching of sulfide minerals during and after mining. I understand that this is a major problem in Canada. In the US the DOE estimates 300,000 abandoned hard rock mines have an acid mine water problem. The run-off from these mines leaches metals as it spreads from its source creating acid mine water and has contaminated 12,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 180,000 lakes and reservoirs. The DOE estimates 2,400 (appox 500 billion gallons) billion litres of contaminated surface and groundwater needs remediation. For more go to aircommunications.net and look under Green Precipitate Process. Anyone who does not understand the nature of the problem should visit places like the Berkeley Pit in Butte Montana which holds appox. 25 billion gallons of noxious acid mine water with about 5 million gallons being added everyday from surrounding areas. The sulfide rocks dumped on the surface of mining claims themselves become a very serious problem as they release acids when they come into contact with air and water. I suspect that many environmentalists confuse the two issues and think of them as a purely cyanide problem.