This part of Colorado is mineral-rich. Silver, gold, lead, copper, coal, and uranium have all been mined near here, and the higher metal prices make it profitable to put old mines back into production. Some people object.
Mining has big impacts on water quality because abandoned mines leak acid into the river. Private citizens have worked for years cleaning up the old mines that drain into the Animas River, and the handful of new mining ventures in the region was a topic of discussion at a recent water meeting.
One question was: Are these big ventures? Are they national, well funded companies? (Do they have the money for proper environmental mitigation, and a reputation to protect?)
Oh, no, was the response. These aren’t modern mining operations. This is traditional mining, where small operators fleece big city investors and leave behind an environmental mess.
Which would be funnier if it wasn’t true.
A Californian consortium is trying to reopen a gold mine in Mayday. Here’s one local’s response:
There’s a nifty Burma Shave type series of signs that reads
TAKE YOUR
GOLD RUSH
BACK TO
CALIFORNIA please
and the last sign is
Whatever your opinion of mining in Mayday (or political theatre, for that matter) you gotta love someone who takes you from Uranus to heinous* in less than a half mile.
*love that word.
heinous
c.1374, from O.Fr. haineus (Fr. haineux), from haine “hatred,” from hair “to hate,” from Frank. *hatjan (cf. O.S. haton, O.E. hatian “to hate”).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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