Catastrophe on the Animas

Unbelievable.

Acidic wastewater from an abandoned mine above Silverton coursed its way through La Plata County on Thursday, turning the Animas River orange-brown, forcing the city of Durango to stop pumping raw water from the river and persuading the sheriff to close the river to public use.

LINK (via: The Durango Herald)

B.C. Environmental Disaster

Assesing the "possible" environmental impact?

The Ministry of Environment said the breach at Mount Polley Mine happened in the middle of the night. The ministry along with the Cariboo Regional District (CRD), RCMP, Central Cariboo Search and Rescue and emergency management crews are investigating and assessing the possible environmental impact.

“The tailings pond is about four kilometres long by four kilometres wide and it’s nearly empty,” McCraken told Global News. It’s believed to have contained as much as five billion cubic metres of waste water, the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

LINK (via: Global News)