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hattie
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 01:19
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So this is what happens when coal mining goes bad.  The mine up the mountain from us had a "small event" when 6,000 gallons of tailings and heaven knows what else broke free of a containment pond and into our river. Our river has turned black. This is the river that supplies our wells with drinking water (not to mention the fish, etc in it). The company hasn't spoken with any of us in town. All our information is coming from the news reports on television. They say it is more of a visual impact than anything else. hmph. I'd like to see them drink that water.
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KSalzwedel
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 02:04
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So sorry, hattie! Will it clear up over time?
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stickbowcrafter
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 06:29
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I hope whoever is responsible is held accountable. Fortunately Mother Nature is resilient and will clean herself up before you know it. Good luck.
-Brian
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OwenChristensen
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 07:38
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So sad. I hope it will be OK.
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TheCabinCalls
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 10:49
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Guess what...no body will even hear about it either...I bet.
I didn't know that there was an oil spill in the Yellowstone river...funny how they try to sweep these things.
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trollbridge
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 12:12
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Oh, those photos make me feel ill in the pit of my stomach. I know accidents happen and I know man-made headaches exist, but to say it is mostly a visual impact.....really? Being treated like we are stupid is a huge insult! I hope this can be cleaned up properly and promptly!
I haven't seen you around a whole lot, Hattie. I hope you and Bob are doing well and enjoying your summer.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 12:21 - Edited by: hattie
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Thanks for the responses. Yes, when it comes to a spill, the government sticks their heads in the black, polluted sand and pretends everything is just fine.
The coal company has not spoken with anyone in our town. Our Interior Health Authority (who is responsible for our health and well being) reported to the news that there are no wells within 18 km of the spill. Hmmmm....I guess we don't exist. We're 4 km from it and our entire town is on wells. Our area representative said it was "good for them" (referring to the coal company) to have reported the spill. Seriously!?!?!?! What else were they going to do? It isn't like they could have pretended it wasn't there. Unbelievable!
Our water looks clear and is probably fine but since no one is talking to us we don't really know for sure. We're handing out bottled water to our motel guests just in case.
I've looked up on the internet to find out the effects on fish, etc. for such a spill but there is very little data on it as it is unusual for something like this to happen.
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trollbridge
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 12:52
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I hope you get answers that you are comfortable with. Since you already know you have been lied to, it is difficult to know what to believe! 
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Martian
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 13:23
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Hattie, if you have lost business or unusual expenses caused by this spill, you may wish to file a claim against the coal company.
Tom
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 15:32
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Quoting: hattie Our river has turned black. This is the river that supplies our wells with drinking water (not to mention the fish, etc in it).
As far as the well water quality goes, it should not be a problem. No worse than having a septic field the appropriate distance from a well.
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 17:52
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I wouldn't drink the water.....
Can you take a sample and send it for testing Hattie ?
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 19:29 - Edited by: hattie
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A media release was just sent to out (although we still haven't heard from the coal company here in town). They say the water has been sampled and Interior Health will let us know the results. In the meantime you can drink the water but don't swim in it.  That's what they said!!! They are really downplaying the entire thing as a small event. Small or not, I can tell you the locals are on the warpath and don't think much of Coalmont Energy Corporation. From the news release it sounds like they will be up and running again in no time. Amazing!!!
ICC - I agree that our wells are probably just fine and personally, we have been drinking the water. Gravel does a pretty amazing job filtering out the yuck in water. I think what has upset most of us is the lack of communication between the coal company and the locals.
Martian - Surprisingly, our guests don't seem concerned that the water in the river is black and we haven't lost any business because of this.
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 27 Aug 2013 21:06
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Seriously? Don't swim in it? But you can drink it ??????
I doubt you are going to hear from the Coal Company. Look what happened in our gulf with BP.
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Rossman
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2013 19:34
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Quoting: stickbowcrafter Fortunately Mother Nature is resilient and will clean herself up before you know it. Good luck.
I don't believe this to be true. If you go to Alaska where the Exxon Valdez leaked all that oil in '89, the beaches look ok, but if you dig down in the sand the oil is still all right there just a couple inches under the surface. That was 24 years ago.
Truth is it will take many human generations for a single "accident" to "clean itself up", and we are producing these accidents at a pretty astonishing rate.
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Dillio187
Member
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2013 20:19
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any idea what was in the released water? That would tick me off too!
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etjohnson
Member
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2013 20:40
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I recall reading somewhere when the BP spill happened and they began dumping chemicals to expedite the clean up that scientists now think the oil from the Valdez spill is still around in large quantities b/c of the chemicals they used in the cleanup there. They prevented the oil from breaking down and/or seeping back into the earth or something along those lines. I also recall when the Valdez accident occurred that an elderly neighbor (ex military and local historian) talking about how the government and media were exaggerating the long term effects (not the actual pollution, just the claims of how long it would last). I grew up 90 miles from the NC coast. He told me in WWII our coastline was at least as bad from ships being torpedoed and leaking fuel and oil. There was no intensive cleanup and media storm over it. Nature cleaned it up in fairly short order. Certainly by the time I came along in the 70's the only evidence of it anywhere were the people who saw it first hand. I think left to its own devices, nature takes care of itself. When we "help" and start dumping chemicals everywhere, the problem is usually made worse in some way. Just my 2 cents...
Hattie - The townspeople need to start making calls and sending photos and videos of this spill out. There is nothing like a little bad publicity to make a company do the right thing. Hopefully its just a lot of particulates and sediment that will filter out and nothing toxic.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 28 Aug 2013 21:27 - Edited by: hattie
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The story has been on Global News, Global News Okanagan, CBC Okanagan radio and today Bob was interviewed by the Globe & Mail newspaper. We are getting the story out and today someone from the mine came with a laminated piece of paper for us to put up. It said that the Interior Health says the water is fine. I'm not sure how they can say that when they also say they will get the results from the water tests next week. The mine will be holding a public meeting on Friday at - get this - 5 pm to talk with the locals. Hmmm....let's see....most people don't get off work until 5 pm and this is the Friday of a long weekend here in Canada. Do you think they planned it for that time on purpose? Nah! I just sent them a nasty email about it.
Their notices (which we are getting from the newspaper in Princeton) are worded to infer that they are keeping the locals apprised of the situation.
Here's a quote from the latest notice:
"We've been told the spill is not posing any risks to underground drinking water sources." "The IHA (Interior Health Authority) is also recommending people take extra precautions if they intend to swim in the river, including not drinking surface water, swimming with eyes closed and vigorously toweling off afterwards." "The provincial Environment ministry and IHA have sampled the water and are awaiting results."
 I notice they haven't been saying anything about the fish or algae in the river.
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cabingal3
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# Posted: 29 Aug 2013 08:38
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hattie.this is truly bad.thank u for making us aware.we are all in this together to protect our lands and earth.hugs cabi
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 29 Aug 2013 12:47 - Edited by: silverwaterlady
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Hattie-This is awful. A coal slurry spill happened October 2000 in Martin County KY. It was one of the worse environmental disasters in the south yet almost nobody knew about it ( outside of the area)even when it was happening. Doing some research on this spill might give you some helpful information in dealing with the coal company.
Edit: There is a documentary about the spill titled SLUDGE it was filmed during a four year time period covering the lies and coverups from the coal company and the people of the community fighting to get the mess cleaned up and compensation for damages.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 29 Aug 2013 21:09
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silverwaterlady: Thanks so much for the information about that spill and the movie. I figured what happened to us here was pretty unique, but I guess not.
We won't be going to the public meeting on Friday as we have motel guests to check in for the long weekend. The company spokesperson told me to email him our questions and he would send us answers since we can't be there. Hopefully we can get some answers anyway. I wonder what this will do to the beaver in our river?
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 31 Aug 2013 13:00
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So the initial water results are in and it looks good. Nothing nasty has been found in the river water!! There are a lot of government agencies involved now. The company has admitted they dropped the ball with the locals by not keeping us in the loop as to what was happening. They are promising to improve their PR in the future. They are also having to put in safety measures at the mine to ensure this doesn't happen again and are being watched very carefully by various government agencies. So I guess to sum it up we are feeling cautiously optimistic that this will not happen again and that lessons were learned by the coal company. As for aquatic and beaver habitat, that we still don't know. It sounds like the best way to clean up the mess is to let mother nature do her work in the spring.
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naturelover66
Member
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# Posted: 31 Aug 2013 14:29
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So , did the Canadian Government test the water?
Or did the citizens use independent labs?
Just wondering....
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neb
Member
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# Posted: 31 Aug 2013 16:47
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Bad deal for sure. The Goverment was just as much as fault with this whole deal as the company. It just amazing (US) how they can turn their heads when these things happen. It happens in differant degrees here but happen in local and feds all the time.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 31 Aug 2013 18:46
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The government tested the water. We test our water every year and it is almost that time to do it again. The testing place is really far from us so we don't get there too often but as soon as we can find some time we'll take our own water in for a test. We do not go to a government testing site - this is an independent water testing site so we trust it.
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Sustainusfarm
Member
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# Posted: 1 Sep 2013 11:20
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You should send me a sample of your water and I will have it tested here in Wisconsin....I'll tell them it's from my new well at the cabin so we get an honest answer for you!
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 1 Sep 2013 12:44
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We're actually heading to Williams Lake next week to visit family and found a testing lab on the way in Kamloops. We're going to get it tested there. That should tell us if everything is okay or not. 
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tnky03
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# Posted: 1 Sep 2013 22:21
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Oh Hattie, I am so sorry to hear of this incident and do hope your water tests out good and that the wildlife and environment are not damaged. It's great that news did get out and I hope the coal company will take full responsibility and make things right where needed.
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hattie
Member
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2013 00:41
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Got the water test results back today and the water is perfect! 
We were away on the weekend and on our return heard there was a heavy rainfall while we were gone. The river bottom seems to be clearing up - possibly from the rain? The coal mine is still closed and they have all the "experts" up there doing their expert things. No word on when they will reopen.
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tnky03
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2013 09:50
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Glad the water in ok!
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Rossman
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2013 15:01
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Quoting: etjohnson I recall reading somewhere when the BP spill happened and they began dumping chemicals to expedite the clean up that scientists now think the oil from the Valdez spill is still around in large quantities b/c of the chemicals they used in the cleanup there. They prevented the oil from breaking down and/or seeping back into the earth or something along those lines.
Citation needed! That sounds pretty spurious to me.
Quoting: etjohnson I also recall when the Valdez accident occurred that an elderly neighbor (ex military and local historian) talking about how the government and media were exaggerating the long term effects (not the actual pollution, just the claims of how long it would last). I grew up 90 miles from the NC coast. He told me in WWII our coastline was at least as bad from ships being torpedoed and leaking fuel and oil. There was no intensive cleanup and media storm over it. Nature cleaned it up in fairly short order. Certainly by the time I came along in the 70's the only evidence of it anywhere were the people who saw it first hand. I think left to its own devices, nature takes care of itself. When we "help" and start dumping chemicals everywhere, the problem is usually made worse in some way. Just my 2 cents...
Again, citation needed. Your old neighbours anecdotes are not scientific evidence, or really worth considering without some kind of factual documentation to back them up.
The stuff BP poured into the gulf wasn't to "speed the breakdown so it can return to the earth", it was to basically hide how bad the spill was from the public, by breaking down the massive slick into small bits just below the surface....and incidentally doing terrible things to the ecosystem.
You are probably right that nature will eventually correct all this, the problem is we could make the earth uninhabitable for ourselves long before nature can repair all the damage we are causing. The other thing to consider, is that nature is good at cleaning up natural messes. What will nature do with all the weird new materials (like plastic) that we've created, and that will never break down?
Fact is, we think we are way smarter than we actually are, and even though we're headed for disasterous climate change in our current lifetimes, it seems unlikely we will do anything about it before it's too late. Good times!
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