Colorado Mine Problems
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them- these are the best guides for man. A.E.
Dear DShock,
Even before I opened the link you posted I just knew it was about Leadville. I just knew.
Has anybody else seen those huge foamy tailings ponds around the Climax Mine?
I grew up in NE PA in hard coal country and I know what strip mined scorched earth looks like all too well but those ponds scared even me. Blue-green furry water diked up higher than the road alongside of it? A recipe for disaster if I ever saw one, I wish them well.
Regards,
Tim Murphy
Yo Doug;
In the part of the country where I grew up, 50 miles either side of the Ore/CA border, we got lots of old mines, gold, nickel, copper, mostly, but a few other exotics. There's hundreds of them all over, mostly abandoned years ago. In recent years, the price of metals ahs brought renewed interest to many of these sites, and I expect more as it goes on. These things are all similar disasters waiting to happen, from large to small.
There are many little ruined streams full of wierd moss, and rainbow slicks of heavy metal leachings. When we dig into the earth, and let water in there, we often open up a can of worms that's like pandora's box. I try not to dwell on it too much, it's way to fearsome a subject. One site in N.CA is the old Ingot Copper mine. The DEQ is working on that one, and has been for several years. The little ruined creek it dumps into is part of the Pit River drainage into Shasta Lake. Way scary what we've done without foresight.
....................................ModocDan
Does anyone know if there is a way to treat the polluted water, so it would be clean or less toxic??? I suppose the $$$$$ is too great to clean the water?
Doug
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them- these are the best guides for man. A.E.
Some polluted water is purified using settling ponds and aeration to settle out the toxins, and evaporate the water. the resulting toxic or contaminated sludge that has settled out is taken to designated sites where the "soil" is windrowed and regularly turned over a period of sometimes many years to let other toxins evaporate out. As far as heavy metals contamination, the purification process is more involved, and all of it is quite costly and very time consuming. Where I work in the wood products industry, we use a significant amount of water, and pump into settling ponds, aerate it, and also use part of it to irrigate a 30 acre field where hay is grown and harvested. however, most of our contaminants are organic, and heavy metals are not an issue. We successfully clean up probably 60 percent or more of the water we use before we discharge it into the municipal storm drain system (for a fee) the quantity we discharge there is closely monitered, and tested. The remainder we use for the irigation project I mentioned, and it is successfully made inert. that field and its hay are also moniteered closely for contaminants. That is some of what I'm familiar with. .................ModocDan
modocdan,
It sounds like where you work, that your company has a proper maintenance program for treating the waste water. Why did the Mines not have a preventive maintenance program for treating their waste?
In your opinion. Lack of Federal Laws?
Doug
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them- these are the best guides for man. A.E.
Yea, Doug, a lot of it was federal laws, well, the lack of them. Many of these old mines are only coming to light as problems in recent years. Sadly, it has takeen literally over a hundred years of abuse for us and the powers that be to realise how dangerous some of these sites are to the environment. Mine technology has come a long way, and we must remember that the real driving force was economic...getting rich, actually. MSHA
(the Mine Safety and Health Act) is the predecessor to OSHA, and was the first Fe. move to regulate and oversee mining safety, but this does not address the environmental factors at play. When we dig a hole in the ground, particularly a big hole, like a tunnel, or shaft, we upset the ecology in the area. The fact that it is hidden from view, allows for things to take place unseen. ground water seeps in, and pools or runs out, often laden with minerals leached out of the ground. Nasty stuff like selenium, coppers, leads, sulfates, and various heavy metals. Fortunately, at this time there are environmental guidelines in place, and we have learned much about how to protect the environment while mining. Unfortunately, much damage is already done, and many are time bombs, unknown and forgotten, but growing like a science ficton story.....
Sad but true...........Dan
Something else that occurs to me, Doug, is that at the time many of these mines were in operation, either there weren't any problems from hazmat contamination, or they were unaware of them. Truth is, there was greed involved, and just like the placer mine wastelands in the California gold fields, the shortsightedness paid off hugely in destruction. ...............Dan
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