Yesterday it was announced that one of Idaho’s most famous fishing streams, Silver Creek, had high levels of mercury contamination in its fish.
This is a real shocker because Silver Creek is a spring fed creek, indicating to me that the mercury blowing up from Nevada’s gold pits into Idaho (and over to Utah) might be enormous.
Today, Nov. 15, Rocky Barker writes about it. Gold glitters into the billions for mercury emitting Nevada mines. Idaho Statesman.
Update Nov. 16. Study: Silver Creek trout tainted with mercury. Idaho Mountain Express. Folks outside of Idaho may have no idea how much money, paid and volunteer effort has been put in to protect this fishing stream. This is major bad news and a lot of people are talking about it.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Lest it not be forgotten: The Nevada gold mines nearly all have large public lands grazing permits, and are big welfare ranchers.
So they are directly trashing streams in Nevada with cattle manure bacterial pollutants, as well as sending mercury toxins north to rain down on Idaho.
Just at the beginning of the week, I heard about .an NDOW (Nevada Division of Wildlife) fence built with funds from elk tag fees – to keep the dastardly elk from eating Newmont private land cattle grass. Yep — even with gold at a gazillion dollars an ounce – the greed of the Gold Corps. seems to know no limits.
yes, but let’s not leave out ourselves as co-conspirators. Gimme some of dat bling and heart disease………….