Always easier to break stuff than build or put things back together..
Just ask my EPA Geologist BIL, as he monitors chases old mines as they try to expel unlimited amounts of acids. Huge concrete plugs placed in the mine shafts 30 years ago are beginning to fail, the mine has miles if tunnels above and below the failure, they have to avoid dripping leaks, and it's 120º just 100 yards into the shaft.. behind the plug, immense pressures, underneath, 100 feet lower, more flooded shafts, they drilled own to see how far, and had an acid geyser until they could shut it down, plug it.. Millions of gallons of deadly acids eating away at the mountain.. When it fails, it will kill everything in the area and on into the Sacramento watershed below it.. There is no viable solution, delay with more plugs, but the clock is ticking.. The original mine company, long gone, property passed on to others, so the Feds (us) are left holding the bag..
Think this is the only one? Look over maps of old mines all over, water leaches in, forms acids, they build, untended they kill creeks, rivers... Sickening, even more so hat the original miners got away without any penalties, costs for the cleanup..
weco
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