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Introduction
The acid mine drainage is one of the greatest most serious threats to water. It can destroy
rivers, streams, and aquatic life for hundreds and thousands of years. As the mining releases the
sulfides to the water, and air together they react to form sulfuric acid. This acid can destroy a lot
of things around like rocks, as you may see in Figure 2 the surrounding its getting destroyed
with the minute because of the acid, the acid that the mines produced can be released anywhere.
Has contaminated drinking water, aquifers, creating health risks, destroying fish and wildlife and
their habitat. The primary cause of this lasting pollution is the acid mine drainage. Contaminated
water impacts a lot the health of living resources also agriculture, municipal and industrial water
supplies.
Analysis
The reason that acid mine drainage can be so dangerous its because it can happened
indefinitely even after the mining had ended. At the metal mines like the ones with gold, silver,
and copper they are rich in sulfide minerals. So when the mining releases this to the water and air
together becomes sulfuric acid, acid mine drainage may be release anywhere. The acid that is
being release from the mine causes a lot of damage but the first ones to be harmed are the fish,
animal, and plants. Hardrock mines around the Western United States they require water
treatment for a couple of hundred years. Documents say that over 40 Hardrock mines generate
about 17-27 billion gallons of polluted water each year, as you may see in Figure 1 it explains
with an illustration the facts of how many gallons being pollutes. Existing mines known to
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RUNNING HEADER: WATER POLLUTION
generate perpetual water pollution modern mines operate on a massive scale, and release more
toxics to the environment that any other industry. For them to understand that the process that
they are using is only contributing in making the freshwater into water pollution. Pollution of
many of the mines have already contaminated drinking water aquifers, lakes, and stream. The
water treatment cost of these mines is estimated at $57-67 billion a year, 62% of the mines are
Stance
New policies must be ensure to protect them against the decisions that are casing the harm to the
nations waters. The federal law must make sure that the mines dont create water pollution,
some kinds of regulations should be implied in order to protect the waterways. They shouldnt
allow the modern mines produce this type of process some of the mines argue that theres no
funds that can be put into a long-term trust to cover the water treatment cost. There is no way to
financial assurance that will cover the cost of water treatment in perpetuity. Discharging wastes
directly into wetlands, streams, and lakes may be cheaper for the mining industry, but is not the
only way of doing business. Mines could treat their waste, dispose of it responsibility, and still
operate efficiently. The harm that this mines are causing its not only harming the environment or
the living organisms around the water like fish, plants, and animals, but the humans and the
architecture most of the people around the stream depend of that water of the children just simply
play around the stream splash water but the sulfuric acid causes health diseases. This kind of
things shouldnt be happening not because you just want to win some 100 bucks more you
shouldnt destroy everything around theres always a correct method or some kind of process in
other to keep the environment safely. As you may see in figure 1 and 2 they illustrate what its
really happening its not a joke things are actually happening and they are destroying everything
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RUNNING HEADER: WATER POLLUTION
around without leaving anything behind. Every single living organism its disappearing with the
time and that shouldnt be happening. There should be laws applied for mines to dispose their
Visuals
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
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RUNNING HEADER: WATER POLLUTION
Resources
Water pollution from mines - Google Search. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2017, from
https://www.google.com/search?q=water%2Bpollution%2Bfrom
%2Bmines&biw=1366&bih=659&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic1Lmunq7S
AhXF7yYKHX4-BuoQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=SJ5620Escz0BVM