Acid mine drainage is especially nasty because it can occur indefinitely without treatment, long after the mining source of the pollution has ended.
Many hardrock mines across the Western United States may require water treatment in perpetuity. For example, government officials have determined that acid drainage at the Golden Sunlight mine will continue for thousands of years.
Water treatment can be a significant economic burden on the local economy if the mining company files for bankruptcy or refuses to cover water treatment costs. For example, acid runoff from the Summitville Mine in Colorado killed all biological life in a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River. The site was designated a federal Superfund site, and the EPA is spending $30,000 a day to capture and treat acid runoff.
According to a new article published in The Citizen:
“As mines come to the end of their lives, mining companies stop pumping water from abandoned shafts. Water can then flood in, mix with chemical sludge and eventually spill to the surface like an overflowing bath.
“The toxic brew seeps into streams and water catchments and is often used for irrigation. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has linked long-term exposure to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) to cancer, skin lesions and mental retardation.
“The Environmental Protection Agency has previously rated the ecological risk associated with mining waste as second ‘only to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion.’ In its March 2008 Emerging Issues Paper, the Department for Environmental Affairs and Tourism warned that long-term effects of AMD could persist for ‘several hundred years.’ ”
