Environmentalism

Bear with me, this post is going to go all over the place and ramble about, but I am in a writing mood. I just returned from a 22 hour visit to another state. It was one of those long days, where you head to the airport at 4 in the morning, quickly perform some work, head back to the airport, and return home at 2 am the next morning. I headed down to do some soil sampling and collect a water sample from a well at a site that has become the focus of some public scrutiny. The site consists of two abandoned mines that have extremely high levels of metals such as lead and arsenic. There are also some open mine shafts that are unmarked and unfenced. The site is rapidly getting engulfed by housing, schools, and qwicki marts - the typical urban sprawl. Somebody realized that this site might be unsafe and decided to take some action to handle the problem. Now most of you are probably thinking that some piles of dirt and rocks left behind by some mining aren't that big of a deal. In fact, it is probably the kind of place you would have ridden your bike to as a kid far adventures and exploration. I used to have think the same thing until I started working in the remediation industry. Here is story about one site.

Some folks down in New Mexico had moved out into the hills and were living in an old mining region. There were some tailings piles with their characteristic lack of vegetation here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. This family had a small child that used to like to play in the sandbox at the back of the house. The kid soon became sick and the parents couldn't understand what was causing the child's illness. The doctor's eventually diagnosed the illness as cyanide poisoning. But it was too late and the young child passed away. It turned out the fine grained sand in the sand box was actually mine tailings. You see, one way to remove gold or other precious metals from the rock is to apply a sodium cyanide solution to crushed ore rock. The gold is leached out of the rock into the cyanide solution and collected for further processing to remove the gold from solution. This process had been performed at the mine where this family lived and thus the fine sand near their house was used for the childrens sandbox.

When most people hear that I work for an environmental consulting firm (in Boulder Colorado of all places), they assume I am some granola eating, birkenstock wearing, patouli smelling tree hugger. Environmentalism can cover a huge variety of beliefs and ideals. But our main concern is protecting human health. Too often, profit goals and stockholder expectations are put ahead of the common good of the people. Sure, I love it when my 401K exceeds expectations, but I don't want to enjoy it while my niece battles leukemia developed from breathed hazardous vapors due to a chlorinated solvent spill that seeped to the groundwater table and spread underneath her house.

You might have heard Libby, Montana mentioned in the news lately. See, quite a few people in Libby were employed by the W.R. Grace Company which mined vermiculite in the region. The vermiculite came from a mine about six miles from the town and was transported to town for processing. The vermiculite mined in that region contains amphioble minerals similar to asbestos. Inhalation of asbestos fibers suspended in air can result in lung diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer. The workers were exposed to the fibers and when they came home, their families were also exposed to the contaminants. The thing about asbestos and similar materials is that they consist of very small knifelike fibers that when inhaled become deposited in your lungs. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that one of the processing facilities was right next to a youth baseball park. Pretty much the entire town was contaminated with the material. So you think the execs at the W.R. Grace Company might be concerned about their workers or the townsfolk. Well, turns out they didn't really give a shit. Thankfully, they are under federal indictment charges that they were aware of the dangers surrounding the airborne release of asbestos and knew that they were placing the workers and community in imminent danger of death or illness. Guess they were more worried about profit than the people who worked hard to make the company profitable.

So what am I trying to say here. There is a consciencious attack on environmentalism right now by individuals and companies that are more concerned with income than you or me. Remember, they are also the ones with the money to influence politicians and legislation to protect their bottom line. Environmentalism isn't just about saving some mouse or tree. That might be an area of environmentalism, but at its core, it is about keeping you and I safe from the hazards that surround us.