The Necessity For Cleanliness

Technological advances for mining are another one of those technological fixes, and they create solutions to the problems that come with mining. Light bulbs allow for mining underground without causing an explosion from natural gasses, water pumps allow for mining to continue when water floods the mine, and air pumps allow for air circulation and allow for workable working conditions. Although these fixes allowed for mining to continue they also created the mining hazards such as the ones that LeCain entertained in his writing, “. . . brand-new Washoe smelter sent a stream of stinking yellow smoke rolling out over the valley . . .” (Pg 3), this smoke that killed livestock all over the Deer Lodge Valley, these hazards came from the increased productivity of mining operations and either an ignorance or utter disregard for the effects of mining on the environment.

Mining should be thoroughly vetted before, during, and after, there should be a constant vigilance and an extraordinary amount of research done to prevent or to for see possible environmental hazards in order to avoid scenarios like when Sandlos and Keeling said that “. . . The effects of these wastes may persist long after mine closure and abandonment, requiring long-term care and maintenance . . .” (Para 1). When talking about safe mining as a possibility, I say that it is absolutely possible, and I believe that it is absolutely necessary. The Earth is all that humans have at the moment and it is something that can and should be protected when possible. Hopefully mining companies can and will make this happen in the future.