The EPA can't wait to reopen the mine that poisoned North Idaho

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Bunker Hill Mine deposited 75 million tons of toxic sludge in Lake Coeur d’Alene, and the lead and zinc are still flowing.

For a century, the mines of the Coeur d’Alene Mountains in North Idaho produced much of the heavy metals that made the U.S. a global superpower. Starting in the 1880s, through the rise of industrialization, the introduction of the automobile, and two world wars, a few narrow canyons in the Coeur d’Alenes yielded more than 11 million tons of zinc, lead, and silver, as much as a fifth of U.S. production.

Mining has left a mark on the culture of the Silver Valley and an indelible stain on the landscape, which remains heavily contaminated. To extract a pound of metal, mining companies had to process nearly 14 pounds of ore, and they dumped the crushed waste rock into mountain streams and along river banks. Over the course of a century, the tailings and mine drainage flowed down the 40-mile-long watershed, depositing some 75 million tons of highly toxic sludge into Lake Coeur d’Alene. House cats convulsed from drinking the water. Migratory tundra swans suffered slow deaths as their digestive tracts seized up from lead poisoning, causing both suffocation and starvation as undigested food backed up into their long necks. Children in the Silver Valley in the 1970s registered some of the highest levels of lead in their bloodstreams recorded anywhere.

-snip-

The Trump EPA doesn’t do healing. In March, the agency disclosed a shocker: After months of secret talks, it had signed an agreement with a Canadian company to reopen the Bunker Hill Mine. Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator until his ouster in July, said in a statement that the pact would restore mining jobs, contribute $20 million toward cleanup costs for the Bunker Hill Mine, and provide almost $1 million a year for water treatment. In exchange, the new Bunker Hill Mining Corp. and the property’s previous operator were absolved of any responsibility for past toxic releases. The slate, if not the Coeur d’Alene watershed, would be wiped clean.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-epa-cant-wait-to-reopen-the-mine-that-poisoned-north-idaho/ar-BBPFJ6g?li=BBnbfcN

[cilla4progress]

1. I drive right through there - the Silver Valley, often,

On my way to visit my daughter in Montana. Such beautiful country, visibly to the eye. It belies such poison underneath.

[mr_lebowski]

2. Lord, please let the entirety of the current & former Trump Administration, esp. Trump & Pruitt

eventually pass away from painful and humiliating ass-cancer, caused directly by the toxins in the environment that they so blithely celebrated unleashing upon the world ... all of their cases so foul that it repulsed everyone around them who used to love them, and caused said erstwhile loved-ones to snicker and joke about them at their funerals, while not-so-secretly rejoicing at their passing.

Amen ...

[kimbutgar]

3. This area has a large contigent of white supremists

I wonder if their brains have been contaminated by the toxic waste.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Interesting thought.

Knowing that area,the Nut Jobs will be the new employees of this mining Company. My guess is,there are other Toxic Mining areas that are about to be opened once again.

[kimbutgar]

5. And they vote exclusively repuke

When they get sick will they be ok with no healthcare? I doubt those jobs will offer healthcare to their employees. A lot more sick brain damaged zombies still voting repuke.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Who is the money

behind this,in that the real story is. We are hobby prospector's and have been monitoring certain Mining areas as to what is and might be opened once again. Most of the closed mining areas are closed because of Chemical Contamination as well as just to darn costly to operate.