U.S. Mines Pollute Water Despite Predictions of Low Impact, Says Report

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)
A new report reveals that the vast majority of U.S. metal mines pollute clean water even though the required environmental impact assessments predicted they wouldn’t. The report, Comparison of Predicted and Actual Water Quality at Hardrock Mines, highlights the costs to the environment and the public that are created when predictive models fail to reflect real-life consequences. Report authors Jim Kuipers, a mining engineer, and Ann Maest, an environmental geochemist, recommend creating more accurate models to assess mines’ effects on water quality.

U.S. federal law requires that regulators use scientific approaches to predict the environmental impacts of proposed mine sites before permits may be issued. Yet according to the report, 76 percent of the 25 mines studied contributed to contamination of nearby water sources, at levels exceeding permissible water quality standards, even though assessments predicted that all of the mines would comply with standards. Such discrepancies, often the result of failed mine mitigation efforts, are detrimental to municipal, agricultural, and rural water supplies as well as wildlife and certain industries, the report authors say.
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http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4767

[TheMadMonk]

1. I suspect a great deal of this problem is not in the impact statements,...

...but in the complete and proper implementation of promised mitigation measures.