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Originally Posted by Bunz
Interesting, I looked up the river. We have plenty of wild cranberries and they are known to enjoy a higher acidic level. My biggest concern is what copper dust is known to do living organisms of all sizes. Namely though, it apparently has a very detrimental effect on the salmon in thier ability to find thier home waters for spawning. While it isnt %100 sure exactly how they do it, the general accepted way is by smell. Introducing copper dust to a watershed on the scale that is proposed could potentially mess up thier homing ability on a large scale.
Ultimatly, we have a large commercial salmon fishery. But most residents here live a more or less subsistence lifestyle. Granted we use modern methods, but we still consume the far majority of our meat from wild sources here locally. I havent purchased beef, pork(except bacon) or chicken in 2007 at all. Salmon, moose, birds(upland and waterfowl) and caribou are the main staples for me and most residents here. Messing up that resource literally takes food from our mouths.
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I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it causing problems, but I would imagine there would also be an influx of people to man the mines, and the population growth alone might cause some of the problems that concern you. I wouldn’t think they would all be willing to live off the land as you have, which would mean more grocery stores and restaurants, hunting land being developed for housing, etc. Those who are pushing the plan may be thinking the increase in the local population and economy may offset the projected environmental impact.