Gold King Mine Research Paper

Referring to mining industry claims that these sites have minimal surface disturbance Bahr states, “It is blight upon the land… but it doesn’t take much for contamination.” Conservation groups argue that irreversible damage to important waters like Havasu Creek will occur if radioactive contaminants reach the groundwater that supply springs and seeps in the Grand Canyon.

Not just for Native Americans but for blacks, Muslims, Jews, and others, but even now we are dealing with Native American invasion and taking their land again, this time known as the Dakota Pipeline which is currently going on in North Dakota. The Dakota Pipeline is a large oil transmitting pipe that supplies oil across the United States but will be built on protected Native American land. The contractors have taken a look and have said that the pipeline would be a significant amount away from their land, but would be built under their water supply from Lake Oahe and would be at the closest 95 feet under the lake. But the Standing Rock Sioux haven't given up hope they have burought up that there have been over 3,300 incidents in which pipes have had leaks that have affected the environment drinking water and much more. The contractors have said that they have taken extreme precautions and have safety tested everything the Sioux aren't going to take any chances. Even as the Sioux and over 50 other tribes have protested there have been no clear winner of the battle on the Dakota Pipeline. The tribes have been protesting for months and though few have gotten violent many Natives and others with them have been arrested and thrown in jail, which is just another way people can attack the Native People to this

There are many factors that contribute to Idaho’s pollution problem, but mining may be the biggest. Mining is a huge industry in Idaho, hence the nickname “The Gem State”. The biggest product from Idaho’s mines is silver. Silver mines are some of the largest polluters in the state. Bunker Hill, or Silver Valley, as the Coeur d’Alene region is known for its numerous mines, was recently named a Superfund site. A Superfund site is a site under protection for removal of toxic wastes by the EPA. Although that beautiful valley was also once known for its abundant wildlife, now the rivers are flooded with phosphorous, selenium, zinc, lead, silver, cadmium, and arsenic, all from tailings of several mines in the region. Lake Coeur d’Alene now contains over 70 million tons of toxic waste sediments in its bottom. This pollution has endangered people in the area for years. In Smelterville, where a smelter ran for nearly 100 years, a large number of people have been diagnosed with health complications caused by extremely high levels of lead and other toxins in their blood. These conditions, for most, have existed nearly all their lives. Many remember being ill for most of their childhood and on. In 1973, before the smelter was closed, the average lead toxin level per deciliter of blood in children tested was 70. A reading of 10 is considered high alert. Rocky Hill, who grew up in Smelterville and

In Jan. 2011, the EPA decided to veto the dumping of waste from the Spruce No. 1 Mine. But the agency’s efforts have so far been rebuffed by the courts as an overreach: Under the weird legal regime that governs mining, it’s the Army Corps of Engineers, not the EPA, which has the ultimate say-so over those permits. In 2012, the D.C. district court ruled that EPA lacked authority to veto the permit after the Corps had issued it. However, in fact EPA's decision is based on evidence from scientific research on serious environmental harm from mining. In May 2013, a coalition of Appalachian and environmental groups petitioned the EPA to set a numeric water quality standard under the Clean Water Act to protect streams from pollution caused by mountaintop removal mining . They claimed that “State politics and industry pressure have so far failed to end this pollution without such a standard and more and more streams and communities who rely on those waters are left vulnerable. We need EPA to act now.” The EPA’s authority over the Clean Water Act in respect to Spruce Mine No. 1 was finally affirmed by the Supreme Court in March 2014.

The California gold rush was a major event that affected not only California, but also the entire outcome of our nation. This all started January 24,1848 when James Marshall, discovered a shiny metal in the American River.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.

Gold was discovered in 1860 in Leadville. Mining in the Leadville Mining District began in 1860 and continued until 1999. During this time, the Leadville district produced about 28.9 million tons of ore, including gold, silver, lead,molybdenum, zinc and copper. Leadville is known for its gold. The town had a gold rush in 1860. All of the gold added up to about 3 million dollars.Gold is mostly used in dentistry for fillings and other tools.That is what leadville colorado mined.

Currently, in the United States, native populations are fighting desperately for their right to exist. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a major example of this. Proposed in 2014 and approved of in 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline is a pipeline made to transfer light sweet crude oil from North Dakota to production areas in Illinois. Though sounding good economically, not only would the pipeline run under part of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, but it would also run under their primary water source, the Missouri river. Whilst Energy Transfusion (the company building the pipeline) has a vast record of spillage and whilst an oil spill would demolish their water and food source, it’s not only their lives at danger. “They literally bulldozed the ancestors right out of the ground, along with destroying tipi rings and cairns,”(McCauley). Standing Rock’s culture has also been threatened. Without any warning, the Dakota Access Pipeline’s workers bulldozed straight through a sacred burial site, digging up their bones without a care in the world. The government didn’t even comment on it. If someone had bulldozed through a historical cemetery would the government care then? The willingness to let a company bulldoze straight through their culture, to dig up their history and discard it as a lesser issue than industry is a huge blow. Are we not supposed to be the land of understanding? The cultural melting pot of

The Kalgoorlie Mine, also known as the Super Pit due to its distinctive depth of 600m ( Figure 1.), is a mine situated in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia that primarily extracts gold. Often considered to be the largest open-cut mine in the nation, Kalgoorlie produces a tremendous 22 000 kilograms of gold each year. The gold rush that struck Australia during 1851-1914 was primarily a result of the discovery of many mining sites like the Kalgoorlie gold mine. The finding of the Kalgoorlie mine by Paddy Hannan, Thoman Flanagan and Daniel Sheal attracted several thousands of other prospectors (mineral explorers) and created a “ rush” to whoever would quickly become prosperous from mining gold at Kalgoorlie. As such,

But when the Indians asked for the pipeline to be rerouted, their request was denied. For them this feels like another personal attack. How will you feel if the government tries to destroy your land? What are the violation of the human right to water? www.truth-out.org/news/item/38251-the-human-right-to-water-at-standing-rock saysThe mantra of the water protectors at standing rock is “water is life”. The world Health Organization (WHO) started in its 2010 fact sheet on the right to water, “Water is the essence of life. Safe drinking water and sanitation are indispensable to sustain life and health, and fundamental to the dignity of all”.

Water contamination is the next major concern of environmental groups. The Environmental Protection Agency, the governmental regulatory agency created in 1970 to manage the enforcement of environmental policy, states its concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009 (United). Specifically addressing mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the EPA expressed serious concerns over water pollution from strip mining (“EPA”). The rupture of an ash dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, TN on December 22, 2008 granted credibility to the EPA’s concerns. In an article published by in Environmental Health Perspectives, Rhitu Chatterjee comments on the poisonous substances contained in ash produced from processing coal, listing

Native Americans are being disrespected, harmed, and their homeland is being taken from them. Am I talking about events taken place centuries ago? No, because these unfortunate circumstances yet again are occurring right here, now, in the present. This horrid affair has a name: The Dakota Access Pipeline. This Pipeline is an oil transporting pipeline, which is funded by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, who have devised a plan for the pipeline to run through the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. However, unfortunately, this pipeline will run straight through the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, expressing their distress for the pipeline have said, that the pipeline will be “Destroying our burial sites, prayer sites, and culturally significant artifacts,” Arguments for the pipeline however have tried to counter this claim, trying to emphasize that “The pipeline wouldn 't just be an economic boon, it would also significantly decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil”, and that the pipeline is estimated to produce “374.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”, which could help the sinking oil economy. (Yan, 2016) However, despite the economical growth it could achieve, the Dakota Access Pipeline could have damaging environmental effects on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the areas surrounding.

The amount of pollution that has spilled is three times more than was previously reported (Garrison, 2015). As of August 10th, the mine was still discharging 500 gallons a minute into the Animus River. The EPA administrator Shaun McGrath has stated that the EPA has contained the rest of the spill in two ponds near the spill site and they are treating it (Garrison, 2015). Another group of people affected by the spill is the Navajo Nation, and the Navajo Nation commission has declared a state of emergency. The Nation is 27,000 square miles and has been considered to be the size of some of the smaller states like West Virginia. Navajo Nation president Russel Begaye has asked an attorney to look into filing a lawsuit against the EPA (Garrison, 2015). Russel has also stated his dissatisfaction with the EPA’s handling of this disaster, along with not being clear about exactly what toxins have been released into the river. The people of the Nation are concerned about the water quality and how it will affect drinking water, cattle, and crops. The EPA seems to have made quite a few mistakes in dealing with this spill; New Mexico’s Governor Martinez says that she did not even find out about the spill from the EPA. She received the information from tribal officials in Southern Ute (Garrison,

They have tried to resolve the issue over the years by digging up the resident’s yards and replacing it with uncontaminated soil. Instead, they put clay which doesn’t absorb water, which caused other issues. The damage has been done, no one was held responsible. The responsibility of the clean-up should have been put on the mining companies and at the cost of the mining companies. They forcibly came into the land, abused the land and the people in the area, then left. It will take decades for the land to ever recover from the damage they caused for a

I learned that mines were abandoned and in this case we have the responsible helping out. In other cases like the Gold King Mine in Colorado that it was used in the early 1900’s, the responsible that abandoned the mines were from Canada and are no were to be found. The problem with these mines is that when they extract all the uranium and there is no need for the mines, these mines need to be abandoned and closed. Unfortunately, there was no cleanup process when the mines were abandoned. Leaving the areas contaminated and the water from the rain transporting the contamination to other areas. 100 years ago, there was no standard on how to properly abandon a mine. Now days, the EPA and the state environmental departments are responsible to enforce the proper abandonment procedures and make sure the closure will not contaminate nearby areas or the water used for drinking, crops, and other human and animal uses. The runoff of the mine contamination can increase the total dissolve solids (TDS) in the nearby waters, making it non usable for human consumption and fish