"Fly Away Home"

I broke down and watched "fly away home" this morning. I try not to have the tv on when I'm the only one home, but nobody else ever wants to watch it and it's one of my favorite movies, ergo I watched it today by myself. Anyway I've never cried while watching this movie. Today I did. Why? Well because I watched the geese bathing in the water at the end of the movie and they were so happy. The developers in the movie, true to developer nature, were hoping for the opportunity to take land designated for wildlife and turn it into homes. I suppose the thought of so many people hoping to oust nature in order to make a quick buck, with ramshackle housing, got to me today. I don't want to live in a world where the only wildlife anyone sees are european starlings, opossums, raccoons, corvids and whatever other animals can find a way to survive with us. I like listening to birds singing and knowing that somewhere outside the limits of development biodiversity still survives.

We turn clean water toxic, for example the Berkeley Pit in Butte, MT. Thinking about the Berkeley Pit lead to research, and I'm more horrified than I thought possible! From the Butte, MT Convention and Visitors Bureau "the Berkeley Pit is a 1700 foot deep hole in the ground" that is three miles around and a mile across. It started filling in 1982, when ARCO closed down the copper mine and removed the pumps (which were keeping groundwater out of the pit). The pit contains 38.3 billion gallons of water with a pH of 2.5 (according to PitWatch Cola, read Pepsi and Coke, has a pH of 2.5 as well), acidic enough that life cannot grow in it (other than the bacteria that has evolved enough to now sustain life in this highly acidic and heavy metal laden aquatic environment). In 1995 a flock of 342 Snow Geese landed on the water (happy to find a place to land while migrating I'm sure) and died shortly thereafter. September 28, 2006 the EPA made a decision regarding the Priority Soils Operable Unit. The EPA has created a two step process. Phase I included the removal of waste dumps, railroad beds and other wastes that may be associated with mine wastes. Apparently children from the neighborhoods bordering the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit have elevated levels of lead in their blood (this is from various sources including the dust from tailings) so the EPA is overseeing programs abating the lead problem. Apparently Phase II does not include removing tainted dust or soil but does include the use of vegetation, caps and warning signs to lessen human contact. Not sure what this really means for Butte residents either, its interesting either way. The dust is created when the tailings that are located in the Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond are exposed to the air, dry up and create dust, carried by the wind to the poor part of town (because as we all know people with money don't live near toxic waste fields). Additional dust may be coming from the Parrot Tailings, but they aren't mentioned a lot so I'm not sure about this theory. The pit itself is about 200 ft from the "critical level" and about 300ft from the level at which it will enter into outside water sources. Until then pumps have been installed at Horseshoe Bend, pumping water into the Yankee Doodle Tailings Pond, in order to slow the ever increased water levels of Berkeley Pit. Once the critical level is reached, water will be pumped out of the pit, cleaned and released into Silver Bow Creek. Possibly even more disturbing than the EPA and state reactions to the pit and its surrounding area is the fact that it has become a tourist attraction. No joke, there is a gift shop, picnic tables, bathrooms and a viewing area. What they fail to mention is that if you breath in the dust of the fog that rises from the lake you may be inhaling heavy metals and acidic vapors. But hey, they only charge $2, so maybe it's worth it (haha). "Pit Watch," is an organization partially funded by one of the main perpetrators, BP-ARCO (yep, you read that right) has an article about efforts being made to discourage waterfowl from landing. Read the brief article, though I warn you it isn't as uplifting as one might hope for. Ultimately I hope that you'll peruse the "pit watch" page, it's all pretty disturbing. I also encourage you to visit the Convention and Visitor's Bureau page because it is entirely amusing. There are some interesting people in Butte, MT.