A month after the world celebrated the new millennium, a huge gold and copper mine burst, leaking more than 130,000 cubic meters of cyanide into the Lupes and Somes rivers in Romania.
In one day, people's lives changed forever.
What was an economic promise to the people of Romania turned out to be a nightmare.
Dead fish rotted on the beaches as far as Hungary and Serbia.
Thousands of people died or immediately became ill.
The rivers were the source of their food and water as people fished and raised farm animals there.
Residents became so distraught they couldn't work or function well enough to leave home.
Their noses and mouths burned, and many fled the area that was home to their people for thousands of years.
The Aural Mine accident underscores what we risk with the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.
Today, more than eight years after that accident, Romanians are still physically suffering and continue being shortchanged by the large foreign multinational corporations that assured them the mine would be safe. Ana Ghisa has not yet received any compensation for her husband's death from kidney failure in what doctors called a "work-related incident" at the mine's cyanide plant.
Heavy metals and dust containing dried particulates of cyanide still intoxicate the air that Romanians breathe. Fact is, toxic waste is the inevitable byproduct of gold and copper mining.
Pebble Mine could be one of the largest gold, copper and molybdenum mines in the world, making the Aural Mine small in comparison.
Full Story: http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/24/dont-risk-hurting-bristol-bay-salmon/
