AURA

There are a few things in Colorado that you can’t see but that we put on our map. We believe the only way the world is going to get any better is if more people know what’s happening. That’s why I present whoever’s out there with info like this Perils of Cyanide article that comes courtesy of The World Resources Institute. Coronado is the one who told me about this some time ago. Hear this and weep:

“The Perils of Cyanide,” World Resources Institute, The 1994 Information Please Environmental Almanac, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1994), pp. 166-7:

"One widely criticized gold mining practice uses a method called cyanide heap leaching to extract valuable metal from ore. In this process, a cyanide solution is sprayed over heaps of crushed ore to dissolve the gold. The process is so efficient that ores with as little as 0.01 troy ounce of gold per ton can be mined economically. While only 468,284 troy ounces of gold were produced by cyanide heap leaching in 1979, an estimated 9.4 million troy ounces were produced in 1991. Meanwhile, the number of open-pit gold mines in the West increased from 32 to 265; most used cyanide heap leaching.

"Besides scarring the landscape with huge pits, this form of mining can also poison the environment with cyanide. In 1990, the operation at Colorado’s Summitville mine leaked cyanide, killing all aquatic life in a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River. The company was fined $100,000 by the state, but the mine leaked cyanide two more times in 1991. Then it went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers with an estimated $20 million cleanup - part of an estimated $283 million in cleanup costs that the government will have to pay for certain abandoned, suspended, or unauthorized mining operations on federal lands.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Superfund list contains 77 mining-related sites that are among the agency’s top priority hazardous waste cleanup projects. One such site, the abandoned Iron Mountain Mine near Redding, California, leaks acids and toxic minerals such as copper, cadmium, zinc, arsenic, and lead into the Sacramento River, the ultimate source of drinking water for two thirds of the state’s 30 million residents. In early 1992, at the peak of a six-year drought, federal water managers were forced to release precious water from upstream reservoirs to dilute toxic seepage from the mine. EPA experts estimate cleanup costs may reach $35 million.

That was then. This is now, with some progress, but more to do. You can get up-to-date on rivers in your neck-of-the-woods with the link Sine put in the text version of this note. Though it’s called American Rivers, he’s already mentioned what’s been going on with the biggest river they’ve got in China. This isn’t just an American problem, so wherever you’re from, get with it. May as well have some fun while you're at it  (lyrics).

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