If there is one chapter that stands out as among the greatest embarrassments in western history-especially among the Intermountain West, it's our unfortunate ignorance when it comes to the long range effects of mining. Places like Libby, and Butte, Montana, Wallace/Kellogg Idaho, and the Spokane area have suffered untold health and environmental damage as a result of reckless mining practises.
The same is true up in British Columbia, where Canadian mining practises have historically earned a reputation of easily being as reckless as our own. One disaster known as "Frank Slide" brought an entire mountain down on a town and is one of the largest mining disasters of the 20th century.
Click on this link and read how recent additional mining proposals threaten the Flathead Valley in Montana-which provides tributary support for the Clark Fork and Pend Oreille Rivers. By stopping this project it might not just be the Grizzlies that benefit. Once heavy metals contamination gets into the water supply the down river implications are enormous.
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_bears_0107
Additional information can be found here:
http://www.conservationnw.org
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