Idaho Mountain Express: 20 years of mercury fallout ended

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Friday, March 21, 2008

20 years of mercury fallout ended

Thanks mostly to the persistence of environmentalists showing more concern than government, Nevada finally has shut down a gold mine whose ore "roaster" had belched tons and tons of mercury fumes for 20 years into northeasterly winds that then dumped minute debris as far north as the Wood River Valley's cherished Silver Creek fishing grounds.

Ordinarily, there might be some consolation in saying, "Better late than never." Instead, the task at hand now is to assess just how much mercury has been spread from the Jerritt Canyon Mine into the air and water of southern Idaho and the extent of lasting damage. Already, the Nature Conservancy and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality have issued warnings about high mercury readings in fish caught at Silver Creek.

However, the Jerritt Canyon Mine is but one of 25 Nevada mines near the Idaho border. Are the other 24 being adequately tested for polluting fallout, and will Nevada shut them down if they, too, are spewing deadly mercury?

How pernicious is this fallout? A typical coal-fired generating plant emits about 125 pounds of mercury per year. Astonishingly, measurable mercury emissions from the Jerritt Canyon Mine roaster totaled some 10,000 pounds per year, according to the Idaho Conservation League.

From this episode, Americans can deduce a more frightening scenario: Imagine the poison raining down on the nation from smokestack industries that have been all but ignored by the politicized Bush-Cheney Environmental Protection Agency and enforcement rules weakened to accommodate cronies of the administration.

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The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing Inc.

Sam Dehne – Reno, Nevada

03/24/08 - 11:32

Nevada's Gooseberry Mine:
From www.gooseberryfrauds.com

Several comments have to be made on this article:
1) It would have to be shown to me that the Bush-Cheney env policies caused such a continuous event over 20 years, which began prior to their tenure. I Believe that it is more in keeping with the local Nev env bureaucrats not doing their jobs. I'd have to be shown I am wrong.
2) The Nature Conservancy is somehow mixed in and that is not a good endorsement. Locally, they are good friends with Lance Gilman. This outfit has a checkered history that involves considerable land grabbing, which is nothing more than long term billion dollar commodity trading.
3) The Gooseberry Mine has never had a history of mercury, lead or zinc, nor has the Talapoosa Mine.
Files full of assays were taken on these properties trying to find various metals to sell, originally starting with the early prospectors, and later with many taken by third parties. Over 12-15,000 assays were conducted on the Talapoosa and "heavy metals" were always negligible and would not have been a factor in processing for the economic grades of gold and silver found.
4) Metallurgy and testing for a gold mine is very specific and requires many statistics carefully analyzed by experts. The problem is they are easily manipulated. Gold testing in over 12,000 assays on the Talapoosa by Placer Dome came within .001 gold grade and the silver was likewise in very close range. When the Scientologists took over, they SALTED SIX DRILL HOLES to run the general grade up. They also re-drew some geologic maps to show greater economic ore grade of in ground tonnages so as to justify their hype.
The scientologists eventually had a gross economic benefit of over $109,700,000 off the Talapoosa. this was a WISE operation which gets 10%. It has not been proven that the cult got $10.9 million but the whole affair is against the Closing Agreement providing the tax exempt status between the U.S. federal IRS and the criminal cult of Scientology, masquerading as a "religion".
5) The local environmental bureaucrats should have been made mercury mine processing cleaner or closed down long before Bush-Cheney.
6) As with Nevada environmental, it is provable that they are infiltrated and heavily influenced by Scientology connected businessmen, lawyers, politicians, lobbyists, and their fellow Judges, collectively referred to as "the cronies" and are responsible for the fallacious Eco-Scams on the Gooseberry. Here, we have a "Regulatory Taking" defrauding EPA long the way.
7) The Scientologists have the funding and stock sales apparatus in place (boiler rooms, the bribery system, the creation of bottom floor "opportunities" etc). The cronies don't have this, but this is what makes it work. Who pays the bill, unsuspecting investors where complaints fall on deaf ears from the SEC, FBI and like ilk. The system is broken for a modern society. ~imho~

Clif Amundsen – Twin Falls ID

03/21/08 - 11:38

There is considerable mercury in S Idaho air from a cement plant in E Oregon I understand. That location is also downwind for a good part of the year./Clif Amundsen