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What did companies do with all their toxic waste before the EPA was established?
Companies ethically disposed of toxic waste long before there was an EPA. I'm not opposed to the EPA. I'm opposed to a politicized EPA. I'm opposed to any organization who feels the end justifies the means.
This is what all those nice corporations are doing to us working tax payers!
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Four companies connected by the Environmental Protection Agency to some of America's worst toxic waste sites have escaped more than half a billion dollars in pollution cleanup costs by declaring bankruptcy, potentially passing the tab onto taxpayers.
Anyone who thinks these corporations are the good guys and the EPA is the bad guy, consider this: would you rather pay taxes to clean up after these profit raping corporations or would you rather live in an environment that leaches toxic chemicals?
Companies ethically disposed of toxic waste long before there was an EPA. I'm not opposed to the EPA. I'm opposed to a politicized EPA. I'm opposed to any organization who feels the end justifies the means.
I am sure "Sunnyside Gold Corp." was not in existence 92 years ago, however the company that they acquired was in existence, and I am sure the next shell company (I think they are now known as San Juan Corp.) will also deny any responsibility for the contamination on their mining claim, however they will gladly take any profits from the claim.
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Originally Posted by uggabugga
I can't find any evidence that sunnyside gold corp was in existence 92 years ago.
Edit to add: The reason that the millions of gallons of water accumulated in Gold King Mine, was that Sunnyside plugged their other mines in this complex, causing the water to back up into Gold King Mine. Their quick and dirty fix to the problem of water coming out of American Tunnel mine is what caused this issue to begin with! Excellent detailed article about the issue: https://www.hcn.org/articles/when-ou...as-river-spill
Go through the house and get all your batteries to the recycle company. Turn off your AC and Fridge. Get rid of your car.
Pretty much every industry uses chemicals.
There isn't anything wrong with the EPA in general. What's wrong with the logic from the Left is that they still think every corporation is driven by profit and that any accident is intentional and requires big fines and penalties. The EPA and the ACE have made huge blunders and caused huge damage to the environment - this is just one incident - and they never take responsibility. And of course, it was always an "accident".
Monsanto has caused tremendous health and environmental damage for many decades and they continue to this day. The government does nothing except collecting $$$ from the Monsanto lobbyist.
Here's the problem for the EPA - According to the Clean Air Act, whoever participates in a "clean up" is Responsible for any problems with the "clean up" and it's a Federal Crime. That's exactly why the former owners of the mines refused to participate in any "clean up" operations. It was never leaching water at "1,000's of gallons a day ..... it was more like a total of some 100's of gallons a day in the entire mining operation area. The EPA built a dirt dam several years ago and then breached that same dam to see how much water had accumulated - it turned out that it was a lot more than they ever expected and it blew up on them.
Actually, other mines in this complex are leaking 300 gallons per minute (yup that's right 0.5 million gallons every single day).
From a news article prior to this accident:
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In recent years, the EPA and other agencies have come together to assess if plugging the [Bonita and Red Mountain] mine would significantly reduce pollution. They found it contributes some of the highest levels of heavy metals year-round to Cement Creek and leaks about 300 gallons of polluted water per minute, Way said. A plug would help, but it would not eliminate all the seeping metals.
It's unfortunately this location was never designated a superfund site, the local commissioners and residents were resistant to the EPA designation. Designation would have brought in more money and resources rather than stopgap measures, but there was resistance because of the bad publicity that comes with a superfund designation.
If you look at that picture at the top of the link you can see that there was already flow from the mine destroying everything in it's path.
Good article from 2014.
It appears the only politics was from the local commissioners, now they have some questions to answer.
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A series of abandoned mines in the Upper Animas Basin has been spewing toxic metals into the local water system for more than 20 years. Scientists say it’s the largest untreated mine drainage in the state, and problematic concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum are choking off the Upper Animas River’s ecosystem.
.................................................. ......................
Sunnyside Gold Corp., the last mining company to operate in Silverton, denies
all liability for cleaning up the worsened metal pollution. It has offered $6.5
million in return for being released from all liability. Kinross Gold Corp., an
international mining conglomerate, bought Sunnyside in 2003. The company
generated nearly $1 billion in revenue in 2013, according to its fourth-quarter
report.
The use of the word "ethical" to modify the noun "mining company" in this thread is the only funny part of this disaster. Obviously the mining company denies any responsibility. That does not mean they are not.
IMHO - based on very little information I wonder why the acid run off from these mines was not channeled to a central treatment facility where the metals and the sulfur could have been recovered and sold to partially pay for the efforts.
Obviously plugging drainage tunnels only collects and concentrates the runoff but does not treat it in any way.
Monsanto has caused tremendous health and environmental damage for many decades and they continue to this day. The government does nothing except collecting $$$ from the Monsanto lobbyist.
Companies ethically disposed of toxic waste long before there was an EPA. I'm not opposed to the EPA. I'm opposed to a politicized EPA. I'm opposed to any organization who feels the end justifies the means.
Clearly the companies that operated these mines did not ethically dispose or their waste prior to the EPA.
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