(Cross-posted at buzztail)

 

Apparently the Supreme Court feels that it's just fine and dandy to dump toxic mine wastes into pristine mountain lakes. Here's from an Earthjustice email that was in my inbox this evening:

On June 22, the Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act allows a mining company to pump hundreds of thousands of gallons per day of toxic waste slurry into a pristine lake in Alaska. Over the next decade, 4.5 million tons of solid waste will be dumped into Lower Slate Lake, killing nearly all the aquatic life and essentially burying the entire lake.

Yes indeed, the Supreme Court granted permission last week for the Kensington Mine, operated by Coeur d' Alene Mining of Coeur d' Alene, Idaho to basically fill Lower Slate Lake in the mountains near Juneau, Alaska with mine waste over the next several years,  killing off the life of that lake.

Earthjustice has a petition to Lisa Jackson of the EPA, and Nancy Sutley, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality calling on them to rescind a 2004 memo by BushCo allowing dumping of mining waste into our waters without having to meet pesky things like EPA standards. You can read the Earthjustice alert and sign the petition right here. Then you can pass it along.

Maybe the fine folks of Coeur d' Alene, the next time they need to dispose of a bag of trash, should simply go and drop it off in the front lobby of Cd'A Mining. It would be quite convenient, and far less deadly than the waste the mine will dump into the lake, though it would probably attract more attention. Who knows?

What's that? Oh yeah. Never mind. That would be illegal...