Heavy price for gold

March 5, 2006

Jack Ray has been hunting ducks in Utah's Farmington Bay, just "a stone's throw" from downtown Salt Lake City, since he was a kid.

Now a father, he takes his own children hunting in the same popular area of Great Salt Lake - but he gives them advice he never imagined when hunting three decades ago.

Ray tells them not to shoot certain ducks: northern shovelers and common goldeneyes. The state says they have dangerous levels of mercury - a neurotoxin that is linked to brain damage, birth defects and cancer in humans.

Fish, too, are being contaminated in Utah, the state says. And more species will surely follow as the region continues to discover the extent of the mercury pollution.

To someone like Ray, vice president of the Utah Waterfowl Association and a sportsman from the marsh boots up, the warning has changed his relationship with the West.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/consumer/2006/mar/05/566616056.html

the bastard is mad as a hatter!

And old Harry the Lawyer was lucky he didn't end up being "what's for dinner!"

election ...to a small city in the middle of nowhere in northeastern Nevada. Barrick Goldstrike had daddy bush on their board at one time following his presidency.

High mercury levels found in Idaho reservoir

Nevada gold mines located downwind of Salmon Falls Creek could be source

Researchers have detected levels of mercury in a southern Idaho reservoir 150 times higher than found in lakes in the northeast United States.

Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir south of Twin Falls lies downwind from four Nevada gold mines that emit into the air more mercury annually than 25 average coal-fired power plants. Until 2002, the mines released more than triple the mercury.

Idaho environmental regulators say they don't have conclusive proof the gold mines caused the mercury pollution in the popular fishing reservoir. But they haven't found other possible sources of mercury, which could cause neurological damage, especially in young children, even at low levels.

An Idaho National Laboratory scientist found this summer that mercury levels in the air rose 30 to 70 percent higher than normal levels when winds blew from the southwest, where the mines are located. This is the first time anyone has monitored the air or the reservoir for mercury.

"The mines are the only sources big enough to cause those peaks," said Michael Abbott, an INL atmospheric scientist.

Since 2002, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials have warned anglers at Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir to limit how much fish they eat after discovering the fish had high levels of mercury.

and we live in the magic valley. My concentration was 1/2 of the federal upper limit while she was twice the limit. Our diets are nearly identical except that she eats more fish than I do.

This is potentially another serious source of mercury pollution for a place that doesn't need any more, all to provide power to California: Sempra power plant

I can't take it any longer. WalMart is building a new supercenter about 100 yards from my house. The planning department is destroying the canyon rim with development. Environmental enforcement is non-existent. I witnessed and reported a 100+ gallon spill of a concentrated fertilizer just last week. Still no response from DEQ. Sprawl is rampant. Most roads are in poor conditions. On top of that, I know there's some shady stuff going on at INL. (think injection wells)

Sempra is certainly a concern. It's amazing anyone would want to locate a plant right in the middle of an agricultural zone. It'll be interesting to see if the legislature takes any action but the cynic in me says that Sempra will get its way. Jerome commissioners aren't exactly known for their environmental stewardship.