Bonasababy
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Senate vote any day now, call your senators if you haven't already!
Boundary waters under attack
- Thread starter IDiot
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MT_Chad
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To make it worse, we don't even have the capacity to smelt it either, it will get shipped out of the country. Last I heard, the concentrated ore coming out of butte goes to China for smelting, I don't know that as fact though.
Bonasababy
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FWIW, my points when talking to people/answering common questions on this are:
"Its not in the BWCA"...no, but its immediately outside it, and near waters that flow north into the BWCA.
"We need to allow environmental review and the permit process to work". Already been extensively reviewed, the conclusion of which was that mining cant be allowed without undue risk of pollution that will be impossible to mitigate, and flowing into the BWCA watershed.
"Our country needs the products from mining". Best argument here is the mine owners are from out of the country. They will NOT agree to restrict sale and use of all mined material to US interests...they want to move it out of country and sell to foreign interests. If its so important to our national security, how does shipping mined product out of our country work to accomplish that?
"Jobs, economic impact"...cant be denied there would be some positive benefits here, but they are temporary, and especially important...future costs after mine owners disappear have always been extremely high...and borne not by the long gone company, but by generations of taxpayers. Its sometimes possible to require up front bonds for this...but the mine company will not agree to the huge need there...which would be hard to even estimate.
NO similar mine has ever been implementing without creating major pollution problems. The mining proposed always creates sulfuric acid when minerals mined are exposed, and the resulting acid mine drainage would flow right into one of most water rich watersheds in the world.
It is feasible...if at some future time, new mining methods are developed that somehow avoid the basic chemical reaction problems all past sulfide ore mines have created, for the ban to be reconsiderd.
IMO, its very possible to support mining consideration, while saying not this type of mining...and especially, not in this place.
"Its not in the BWCA"...no, but its immediately outside it, and near waters that flow north into the BWCA.
"We need to allow environmental review and the permit process to work". Already been extensively reviewed, the conclusion of which was that mining cant be allowed without undue risk of pollution that will be impossible to mitigate, and flowing into the BWCA watershed.
"Our country needs the products from mining". Best argument here is the mine owners are from out of the country. They will NOT agree to restrict sale and use of all mined material to US interests...they want to move it out of country and sell to foreign interests. If its so important to our national security, how does shipping mined product out of our country work to accomplish that?
"Jobs, economic impact"...cant be denied there would be some positive benefits here, but they are temporary, and especially important...future costs after mine owners disappear have always been extremely high...and borne not by the long gone company, but by generations of taxpayers. Its sometimes possible to require up front bonds for this...but the mine company will not agree to the huge need there...which would be hard to even estimate.
NO similar mine has ever been implementing without creating major pollution problems. The mining proposed always creates sulfuric acid when minerals mined are exposed, and the resulting acid mine drainage would flow right into one of most water rich watersheds in the world.
It is feasible...if at some future time, new mining methods are developed that somehow avoid the basic chemical reaction problems all past sulfide ore mines have created, for the ban to be reconsiderd.
IMO, its very possible to support mining consideration, while saying not this type of mining...and especially, not in this place.
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