Mining

A couple weekends ago we drove from Ashland, MT to Sheridan, WY. It's a really pretty drive through the hills. However, once you get near the Wyoming border, there is a little (tiny, itty-bitty, blink and you'll miss it) town called Decker. What's so special about Decker? Other than being a home to say 5 people and a post office (everyone needs to get their mail), there is a huge (gigantic, enormous, bigger than this room) strip mine that is essentially "raping the land." Familiar with mining? Blast down inside the earth, take the coal, fill it back with slurry. That's the basic process and I'm aware of the generalization.

These are the photos I took as we drove by. Since it was a Saturday, there wasn't too much activity, but we can still see the damage. I took a few photos of what we saw before we entered this area and it shows hills with trees and life. This area used to be beautiful.

We also live near a little place by the name of Colstrip, another mining town (bigger than Decker) with a mine

and a huge power plant. I haven't see evidence of the land being raped but then again, I haven't driven around the entire area.

What makes me so, let's try and be nice about this, irritated about this situation? Hmmm... It's the 21st century and we are using 19th century technology to get the energy we need. It's time we move on from coal. The possibilities are right there waiting to be used: Hydro, Wind, Solar, Geo-thermal. It seems as though this area is stuck in a time warp. (Recycling -- or lack thereof -- is another issue that I'll be writing about next.) We also have bad drinking water (smells bad, tastes bad -- yuck), so we go to one of two sacred Native American sites where natural springs flow. If you come out here to visit, you'll see our water cooler. (I could totally start telling "water cooler jokes." Joe and I should have all of our conversations around the water cooler. So, did you see what Caitlynn was wearing today? That shirt does not match those pants. Where did she buy them? Walmart?) I'm wondering what's causing our water to taste horrible and can't help but think it has to do with some of the pollution in the area.

It would be one thing if other states weren't moving forward in this area. We drove through South Dakota to get here. As we drove along I-90 through some desolate areas, we saw windmill farms. I thought -- AWESOME!! Now, if we could utilize this energy producing method even more. And then Joe told me about ranchers that have decreased the amount of cattle they are grazing and putting up solar panels on their land to sell the energy back to the utility companies. DOUBLE AWESOME!! More positive ways to produce the energy we need. All hope is not lost.

The one area I completely disagree with President Obama is the idea of "Clean Coal Technology." Sure, they can put scrubbers on the stacks to filter out all the crud to reduce air pollution, but what about the slurry they shove back into the hills where they mined all the coal? Is that clean? And how safe is mining anyway? People need jobs. That I completely understand, but is there a way to put these miners in jobs producing cleaner energy? Just some thoughts...

What the land should look like.