Wildlife Impacts

Mining disturbs large tracts of land and releases large amounts of toxics. These impacts can have adverse affects on local wildlife:

•  One of five known grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states faces extinction due to a proposed silver mine in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. 
   
• In 1995 at least 342 snow geese died as a result of landing in the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana.They were killed by the extreme acidity of the water eating away their throats. 
   
• In 2000 over 100 birds were killed by a lake that had formed on the mine tailings piles of the Phelps Dodge Tyrone copper mine in New Mexico.  Blue-wing teals, plovers, shovellers, pintail ducks, ring-billed gulls and killdeer were among those killed. [1]
   
• In 1992, the Summitville mine in Colorado released a toxic brew including cyanide and acid mine drainage, killing all life in a 17 mile stretch of the Alamosa River. Cleanup costs at the now-Superfund site exceed $150 million. 
   
• In the wetlands of Lake Coeur d'Alene, a mining Superfund site, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found 15 dead tundra swans in April of 2002. Numerous other waterfowl have died in the area because of mine pollution. High lead concentrations paralyze the swans' ability to swallow, causing them to starve to death.

For More Information

References

1) Dr. Michael Hooper, John Isanhart, Dr. Stephen Cox, Avian Consumption and use of contaminated water sources: toxicological assessments of exposure, effects and susceptibility, Final Report- Part I. The Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University, (February, 2007).