Sulfide Mining Pros And Cons

There could possibly be a sulfide mine going up in northern Minnesota by the Boundary Waters, run by PolyMet, a Canadian mining company. I do not support this mine whatsoever.

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 most dangerous consequence of fracking is that hundreds of chemicals are blasted into the Earth’s crust, which creates cracks in the bedrock. Many times, these cracks lead to an aquifer, in which case, all of the water in the aquifer becomes contaminated with these chemicals (Jackson, 2014). Additionally, when the natural gas is being pumped out of the wells, methane is released into the atmosphere. A study conducted by NOAA found that approximately 4% of the methane is being released into the atmosphere. This same study found that methane pollution increases climate changes because it traps heat in the atmosphere 25 times more than carbon dioxide (Hoffman, 2016). Furthermore, fracking waste wells are the primary cause of the increase of earthquakes in the Central U.S. This is because these wells operate for a longer period of time, which means that they inject more “solid ‘cake’” into the Earth than the actual fracking process (USGS, n.d. and StateImpact, 2017). Finally, recent studies have found that people who live near a fracking site are at higher risk to develop respiratory problems, which is due to the increased levels of pollutants. These pollutants are not only affecting the people who live in close proximity to these sites, but to the workers, as well. The most common type of respiratory problem reported was lung

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.

Noise pollution is a loud or unpleasant noise that is caused by machinery and is harmful or annoying to those around (Lavelle 107). While roadways are being built, the truck traffic increases greatly (Lavelle 107). The companies want to build these roadways as quick as possible so often, these crews work all through the night (Lavelle 108). Between 100 and 150 truckloads of heavy machinery are carried to the new fracking stations (Lavelle 108). Along with that, between 100 and 1,000 truckloads deliver chemicals, water, and proponents to these new work sites (Lavelle 108). These crews build over 1,000 miles of pipe and compressor stations to maintain the pressure along the pipe (Lavelle 108). Not only does the noise annoy the town goers, the amount of traffic increases. If the original time it took to arrive to work was five minutes, this was now increased to ten or even 15 minutes (Lavelle 108). This caused major conflict between the drillers and communities. Several communities gathered together to protest against fracking in their neighborhood. In Pennsylvania, hundreds of individuals banded together to protest toxic fracking (Lavelle 108). However, numerous companies have the states approval to frack in these locations, so protesting is a loss cause (Lavelle

The environmental risks that accompany fracking are potentially hazardous. In order to frack, thousands of acres of forests need destroyed to allow roadways the space they need to exist (Lampe 38). However, these roadways allow erosion to occur due to the lack of vegetation (Lampe 38). Along with erosion, siltation occurs and sand, soil, and mud sink to the bottom of rivers, and ponds (Lampe 38). Therefore, the animals living in these habitats may migrate, or simply just die. Trees situated on the acres of land for hundreds of years would have to be chopped down to make way for roadways. In some cases, depending on where the oil reservoir is located, the state declares eminent domain on houses and pays the landowners. Consequently, the houses will be destroyed and the oil reservoirs will be fracked.

When making the huge wells used to obtain natural gas, results show that five percent of the wells start leaking gas immediately. Studies show fracking “releases a cocktail of chemicals from a menu of more than 600 toxic substances, climate-changing methane, radium, and, of course, uranium” (Lennon 535). These multiple gases can cause serious health issues including asthma and even cancer. It is a widely-known fact that smoking can and does cause lung cancer. So, when one says it is okay to frack in various places, that is equivalent to one saying, “Smoking lighter cigarettes in the right place at the right time makes it safe to smoke” (Lennon 535). If one is inhaling various gases that are more dangerous than smoking, that shows how dangerous fracking is, and how harmful it is not only to the earth, but to many people’s health. If workers continue using hydraulic fracturing to retrieve gas like they are now, the effects will only worsen. There are ways to improve the dangerous effects of fracking today, and in the future. Various people have been able to figure out the mystery of how the dangerous fracking gases are able to escape to the air. The EPA has found dispersed occurrences where the cement, that is supposed to secure the gases from escaping, has many cracks in it (USA Today Editorial Board 546). With care of fracking comes great results such as: water not being contaminated,

Things like mining too far into a wall that connects to an older mine, thus increasing the danger of a collapse, is common. Other practices include shoddy dams that contain the slurry, a mixture of water and fine particles of coal, which do not always meet structural regulations that can and have broken and flood nearby communities (Light and Light, 2006). There are other environmental issues that are associated with coal mining. Acid mine drainage is the result of sulfide minerals being exposed to oxygen. This produces sulfuric acid and can dissolve heavy metals from the waste rock, making it bioavailable. Without proper treatment, this will poison the water systems near that mine and will seep into the streams, creeks, and even ground and well water. The water turns orange and is impossible for anything to live off of the water or in it (Kirsch, 2014). Another issue of coal mining is airborne coal dust, which can result in Black Lung disease. This is caused by inhaling too much coal dust and is common in miners, but with surface mining becoming more prevalent, more coal dust is being released into the air and drifting down to the communities. More children and elderly people are having respiratory problems that many believe are because of

On the other hand, further research has shown that shale oils and gases develop risks that interfere with the quality of air especially from the exhausts of the trucks involved in the transportation (Wilber, 2012). This overall process may result in the pollution of water or rather the contamination of both the ground and the surface sources. This means that the releases of chemicals among other underground spillages often cause unwanted mixtures between the clean sources and the migrating gases and

As the earth progresses and becomes older, life can be hard to sustain when technology becomes more advanced and fossil fuels are being burned rapidly. New methods are being created to support the continuous demand for energy, but some methods are harming the planet rather than creating new opportunities. Hydraulic fracturing has done more harm than good for the Earth by creating unprecedented earthquakes and also contaminating water.

A relatively new process for extracting desired shale oil from the bowels of the earth seems to be shaking things up around operation sites. Environmentalists and oil tycoons have been debating for years over the safety of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, since areas with a high concentration of fracking operations have been affected by several environmental problems. Though many scientists argue that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the media and many environmentalists use these environmental problems around fracking sites as proof of the long term damage fracking causes. Although it has domesticated the oil industry and reduced usage of coal as a fuel source, fracking is undoubtedly related to many detrimental environmental impacts, such as water table pollution and increased seismic activity.

Frack sites can break down and cause a bundle of problems. Communities with fracking have seen decline in property values, increases in crime, and losses in local tourism. When a community loses tourism and gains an increase in crime it may not be an area where a new company would want to settle, worsening the economy. Fracking is said to have caused earthquakes when a pipe ruptures. If a pipe ruptures it damage a fault line pushing one tectonic plate closer toward the earthquake point. If a storage tank for fracking breaks it may leak out into crops and streams and poison our ecosystem. If the fracking fluid does as much as decimates on of the species in the ecosystem, then it will put the whole ecosystem out of whack causing numerous problems.

Fracking has killed farmer’s livestock and it leaked into the farmers plants. When the oil drillers drill sometimes it leaches out of the ground and gets in the plants. Chemicals spilling from fracking could contaminate the plants.Fracking has also caused a lot of earthquakes. In conclusion fracking is bad for the environment because it has killed farmers, livestock and ruined the plants.

PolyMet is planning to develop a sulfide mine on public land close to Hoyt Lakes and Babbitt. If they acquire the necesary permits to begin mining, they will remove copper, nickel, and other precious metals from three mines on site. They will mine for 20 years, extracting 72 million pounds of copper, 15 million of nickel, and 106,000 ounces of other precious metals a year, which will leave an estimated 500 years of pollution. Polymet plans to contain the waste at the mine site by placing it in a stockpile with a groundwater containment system. After completing the 20 years, they will backfill the waste into the mining pit. At the processing plant, they will contain the contaminated water by using reverse osmosis, a process that forces

Today the Sudbury region is known for mining and production of nickel, as it is located just off the Canadian Shield region that holds a vast nickel reserves. Throughout the early 20th century, many mining and smelting venture such as Inco and Falconbridge were created to take advantage of the growing nickel industry. Both are these companies used a smelting process called heap roasting method to extract the nickel from the ore. However, Smelting process is the one main source of the sulphur fumes which caused acid rain (Buhr, 1998). This results from nickel production itself, where there is 8 more times of sulphur oxides particulate in the ore than actual nickel (Crawford, 1994). At the beginning of this century, the amount of SO2 released into the atmosphere weren’t much of a concern since the nickel output was considerably small. It later became a problem as the demand for nickel production was gradually increasing (Crawford, 1994). Up till the 1970’s, the Smelting industry in the Sudbury region was one of the largest metal producing complexes in the world, which meant that it also release a massive amount of Sulphur and metal particulates into the environment. By the 1960’s, the smelting site in Sudbury was one of the largest point source of SO2 emission releasing thousands of tons of metal particulates from the smelters as graph 1 displays. (Keller, Heneberry & Gunn, 1999). As more ground level of sulphur dioxide emission