Posts tagged mining
Stories about America's second-largest waste stream.
Some nice anthracite coal with a quartz intrusion #geology #coal #ilovemyjob #mining #bc
PHOTOS: The Price Of Power To A Nation
By Claudia Rowe, Special to Equal Voice News: KAYENTA, Ariz. In a dimly-lit home off a tangle of dirt roads on the Navajo Nation, 80-year-old Simon Crank sits on his living room couch, recalling the days when executives from a coal company in St. Louis, Mo., would visit, bringing sweets as gifts, promising jobs.
(Source: textual-evolution)
Scott, who raises meat goats near Billings, is fighting the Otter Creek proposal. “You can use this land to make a relatively quick buck on coal,” he says, “or use it to make a stable economy for hundreds of years.”
He has ranchers on his side, including Clint McRae, whose father, Wally, fought the Rosebud Mine and power plant decades ago.
His family has ranched between Colstrip and the Otter Creek site for 130 years, relying on the shallow aquifer that irrigates his hay and waters his cattle. McRae’s coal grievances include water contamination from leaking coal ash ponds at the power plant and “washy,” low-nutrient grass on reclaimed mine sites.
(Source: oregonlive.com)
"Coal Mine Produces Poison, Not Sovereignty" -- Censored News, Navajo Nation
For instance, there is the matter of coal ash. After power plants have burned coal, they are left with the ash that is often disposed of in dry landfills or mixed with water and contained in holding ponds. Some might say, “Isn’t this just harmless ash?” The truth is, coal ash often contains seventeen toxins, if not more, including heavy metals and radioactive elements like radon, thorium and uranium. A report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility has found that ingesting these toxicants, whether through eating, drinking or inhaling, can cause cancer and affect the nervous system creating cognitive deficits, developmental delays and behavioral problems. Data by the EPA has also found that living next to a coal ash disposal site can increase your risk of cancer and other diseases.
So what does Four Corners Power Plant (FCPP) do with their coal ash? We know that from 1971 to 2008, generated coal ash was dumped in unlined mine pits, covered only by topsoil at Navajo Mine. Yes, for nearly 40 years BHP was accepting toxic waste as backfill.
Are U.S. taxpayers being shortchanged by coal companies mining on public lands?
Bipartisan duo Sen. Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) have called on the Secretary of the Interior to investigate.
A woman stands with a coal miner in Holden, West Virginia, 1938, by B. Anthony Stewart
Abrahm Lustgarten: How the Feds Let Industry Pollute the Nation’s Underground Water Supply -- ProPublica
Even as water grows more precious, the Environmental Protection Agency has permitted oil and gas, mining and other industries to contaminate aquifers in more than 1,500 places.
(Source: propublica.org)
MTR_Panorama, Mountaintop Mining, Panorama on Flickr.
This is where electricity come from…it’s called Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining…
(Source: thepsychedelicsalvagearchives)
Coal is getting more expensive to produce.
Why? First, the easiest-to-reach coal has been mined, which means coal companies have to dig deeper and go after thinner seams and smaller deposits. That costs more, in both energy and money. And second, transportation costs, mainly the cost of the diesel fuel that runs the trains that carry the coal, are rising.
It has gotten the point where, in some areas, profit margins have flipped: coal is now selling for less than it costs to produce.
(Source: grist.org)
