Penokee Hills In Northern Wisconsin

Rock Canyon is an excellent site for geologic research and has been investigated by geologists from around Utah and neighboring states. With outstanding extrusions of quartzite, tillite and limestone, it’s a favored destination for hikers, rock climbers and scientists. The quartzite is considered the most unique feature of Rock Canyon as it’s one of the few clear and distinct examples of the sedimentary processes involved with a shallow marine setting. The tillite beneath the quartzite draws attention to the ancient glaciers to the past. In conjunction with the active Wasatch Fault found at its doorstep, Rock Canyon is an important place in Utah for geologists.

Have you ever enjoyed walking, eating, or shopping by the riverfront, in downtown Green Bay? It is currently being covered by coal dust daily and no one is stopping it. Coal piles have disrupted people around the riverfront since 1978. The Koch company has recently sold the controversial Coal Piles to a coal industry family in Pennsylvania, this could be what the locals have been waiting for as the coal piles could be removed. However, the family has stated that they don’t plan on moving the piles in the future. The Coal piles in downtown Green Bay are ruining land, peoples homes, and is bad for the environment.

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

The first reason is the pollution. Any major mining excavation creates a huge amount of waste. This waste is toxic to the environment, and the method for containing it is not 100% guaranteed. They store this waste in large man made holes called tailing dams. There have been many reports of these storage structures breaking and spilling the waste all over the land. This waste would pollute the land and make it uninhabitable. The most affected would be the salmon. Salmon fishing is huge part of the Alaskan life and if the salmon were affected by the mining, a lot of people would lose their jobs.

Imagine drifting slowly on a canoe while fishing one of Minnesota's crystal clear waters on a beautiful, sunny day. Now imagine being interrupted by the loud, ongoing sounds of drilling and being told the fish were too dangerous to eat. This is only one of many potential harms of sulfide mining. PolyMet, a new mining company would like to bring sulfide mining, also known as copper-nickel mining to Minnesota. This would involve the extraction of copper and various other metals from sulfide, hence the name. The sulfide that comes out of this type of mining can have serious consequences on the environment. Events that occurred in the past and facts mentioned in the books titled Taconite Dreams by Jeffrey Manuel and Fractured Land by Lisa

With so many people mining for gold and trying to find as much as they can, new technology was invented to make the process easier and more efficient. Before this new gold-mining technology, many miners would dam up rivers to make their findings easier and supply water during dry months, or the rivers would become blocked with deposits and sediments, effectively changing the rivers for animals and plants. Along with that, the need for wood and lumber increased so the forest changed with more and more trees cut down to create canals. The land was essentially torn up just in the miner quest for gold. With the invention of hydraulic mining came one of the most disastrous effects on the state’s physical environment. Before workers would only dam up rivers, but with this machine, mountainsides and other areas were torn up,

My great-grandfather mined in coal mines in Nitro, West Virginia for years. My great uncle currently works at a factory where he is only limited to do certain aspects of his job due to recent EPA regulations restricting what the factory can do due to the factory producing chemicals within the air that is harmful to the environment. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has a plan to combat these unnecessary EPA regulations stated within the following quote “The current Administration, and particularly its EPA, seems not to care. Its Clean Power Plan — the centerpiece of the President’s war on coal — has been stayed by the Supreme Court. We will do away with it altogether.” Donald Trump and the Republican Party understands that the effort to protect the environment has gone too far with extreme measures as he states in this quote “We will end the war on coal and the war on miners.” The idea of preserving my great-grandfather’s hard work, along with my great uncle’s career drives me to the polls because the government is attempting to help them in theory, but just as recently stated, have gone too far in their efforts to protect the environment and thus I must stand up and go to the polls this November to save coal along with my family’s hard

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.

I would have to say that from the reading that it can be very harmful for the coal mining chemicals to seep into the ground into our drinking water.

The waterways can be divided into categories of water that has been affected by the Summitville mine and water that has not been affected. Based on the location of the waterways, the Beaver Mud Dump, the Headwaters of Wightman Fork, Schinzel Flats, Wightman Fork below mine, and the small creek from tailings pile would be directly affected by the contamination initiated by mining activity, while the Cattle Guard, Iron Creek, Alum Creek, Bitter Creek, and waterways around the Alamosa River would not be affected or as affected by the mining activity (refer to Figure 1). From the data collected this year, it can be inferred that the Beaver Mud Dump is by far the most metal-polluted body of water in the area; though the waterways affected by

You will find the Salinas Valley in Central California. It is considered the coastal Reign but is located between the two mountain ranges, the Gabilan and Santa Lucia. The Salinas Valley is known around the world for its agricultural produce, including, artichokes, lettuce, strawberries, and wine grapes. The climate in the Salinas Valley is crucial in growing crops because the winter was mild in contrast to the winter further north of the valley. The Salinas Valley is a sand river; water only appears after heavy rains and/or from the upstream reservoirs.

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

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to

The changes resulting because of the disaster are numerous. It is foolish to even begin to imagine what the families of the miners are experiencing. Then there is the Greymouth

These left over tailings create human and ecological health problems that can be caused from exposure to the dust that are blown from these mine sites since metal toxicants can persist in tailing particles (arizona.edu, 2008).