If you are still not sure whether or not to support a large-scale hard-rock mine in the Chilkat Valley, then here are a few things to think about. Mining activities around the world have left pollution, health risk, degraded natural resources, and socio-economic instability in their wake for millennia. Mines established during the Roman Empire prior to 467AD continue to emit acid mine drainage today. If an acid generating mine is developed in the Chilkat Valley, then the threat of harmful contamination in our local waters forever is very real. Despite constant promises from the mining industry, new technology has not proven to protect watersheds from this threat. Tailings dams fail every year and local communities are left to shoulder the burden. Tax payers in the United States and elsewhere continue to pay for the treatment of acid waters after large scale mines declared bankruptcy. They will need to do so for the rest of their lives; as will their children, and children’s children, and so on. If you happen to trust Constantine Metals with the care of the Chilkat’s rare and valuable clean water, fish, and wildlife, then please consider this: they are burdened by investors in a finicky industry, not by the needs of our community. And when disaster strikes, they certainly won’t be around to pick up the pieces forever.
Stacie Evans