{"id":11823,"date":"2015-09-04T12:31:49","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T17:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2015-09-04T12:31:49","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T17:31:49","slug":"the-trouble-with-tailings-toxic-waste-time-bombs-loom-large-over-alaskas-salmon-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11823","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste \u2018Time Bombs\u2019 Loom Large Over Alaska\u2019s Salmon Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste \u2018Time Bombs\u2019 Loom Large Over Alaska\u2019s Salmon Rivers<\/a><\/h3>\n

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There are a few unarguable truths about mine tailings, the pulverized rock, water and sludge left over from mineral extraction \u2014 mining is a messy business, the leftovers have to be dealt with forever and it\u2019s impossible to guarantee against another tailings dam failure such as the\u00a0Mount Polley catastrophe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In B.C., there are 98 tailings storage facilities at 60 metal and coal mines, of which 31 are operating or under construction and the remaining 67 are at mines that are either permanently or temporarily\u00a0closed<\/p>\n

That means communities throughout\u00a0B.C.<\/span>\u00a0and Alaska are looking nervously at nearby tailings ponds, which sometimes more closely resemble lakes, stretching over several square kilometres, with the toxic waste held back by earth and rock-filled dams. The water is usually recycled through the plant when the mine is operating, but, after the mine closes, water, toxins and finely ground rock must continue to be contained or\u00a0treated.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the realization that tailings have to be treated in perpetuity that worries many of those living downstream, especially as the Mount Polley breach happened only 17 years after the dam was\u00a0constructed.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The concept of forever boggles people minds. In one thousand years is the bank account still going to be there? These people are going to be dead,\u201d said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without\u00a0Borders.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There are time-bombs up there without a plan to deal with them. Are they going to be able to build a mine that\u2019s going to\u00a0keep its integrity\u00a0forever?\u201d<\/p>\n

It raises the question of whether there should be any mining in an area that is vital to five species of salmon and sustains the livelihoods of so many Alaskans, said Heather Hardcastle, a Juneau fisherman and coordinator of Salmon Beyond\u00a0Borders.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>This is why this region of the world is so globally significant and why we care so much,\u201d said Hardcastle, who is among those pushing for the issue to be referred to theInternational Joint Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste \u2018Time Bombs\u2019 Loom Large Over Alaska\u2019s Salmon Rivers There are a few unarguable truths about mine tailings, the pulverized rock, water and sludge left over from mineral extraction \u2014 mining is a messy business, the leftovers have to be dealt with forever and it\u2019s impossible to guarantee against another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2037,65,94,5317,3069,8681,8680,8679,8030],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-alaska","tag-bc","tag-british-columbia","tag-desmog-blog","tag-mine-tailings","tag-rivers-without-borders","tag-salmon-rivers","tag-tailing-ponds","tag-toxic-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11824,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}