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A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

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Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#51

Post by throwawaysea »

sjwalter wrote: post #38
throwawaysea wrote: post #16

So are they going to have this person or persons man the pit indefinitely? I see they have some automated measures like the propane cannon but at some point shouldn’t they just put a net on top of the whole pit to keep birds off it?

This case in Butte is somewhat better than usual because BP is actually footing the remediation bill. More typical is having the taxpayers foot the bill, like with the fascinating example of Giant Mine, 5km outside of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Some 200 kilotonnes of arsenic trioxide were created as byproducts of the mining process, enough arsenic dust to kill off every human and anim…

Wow I didn’t realize it costs more to clean up than the actual value of the mine’s production. That definitely seems broken in some way. It doesn’t seem practical to predict future costs and price them in though, so I’m not sure what a better solution looks like.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#52

Post by rp1 »

sjwalter wrote: post #38
throwawaysea wrote: post #16

So are they going to have this person or persons man the pit indefinitely? I see they have some automated measures like the propane cannon but at some point shouldn’t they just put a net on top of the whole pit to keep birds off it?

This case in Butte is somewhat better than usual because BP is actually footing the remediation bill. More typical is having the taxpayers foot the bill, like with the fascinating example of Giant Mine, 5km outside of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Some 200 kilotonnes of arsenic trioxide were created as byproducts of the mining process, enough arsenic dust to kill off every human and anim…

Arsenic trioxide needs a bottle deposit.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#53

Post by Justin_K »

pvaldes wrote: post #32
Justin_K wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol before making your rant, you should know they don't shoot the animals, the shoot near them to scare them away.

The effects of lead pellets in marshes as bird mass poisoner is a well known problem in ecology. They are worsening the problem.

The area is so toxic, a few lead rounds is the least if concern.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#54

Post by HNTA_1 »

pvaldes wrote: post #32
Justin_K wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol before making your rant, you should know they don't shoot the animals, the shoot near them to scare them away.

The effects of lead pellets in marshes as bird mass poisoner is a well known problem in ecology. They are worsening the problem.

Lead shot has been federally banned for almost three decades.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#55

Post by undersuit »

I spent the last week in Butte for Thanksgiving. We made our way up to an overlook of the pit on Friday. We got to hear the wailers mentioned; there were no other actions but the dump trucks running material from the still open parts of the mine.

It's odd visiting the thing that's messed up so much of what I call home in Montana. I grew up in Missoula, downstream of Butte. That city also had a nearby superfund site, Milltown Dam, that had captured mining tailings washed downstream from Butte and the other town I visited Anaconda.

Of course to escape Missoula once they removed the dam I moved to East Helena, home of the East Helena Slag Pile a remnant of when the ASARCO lead smelter spewed smoke all over the town.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#56

Post by hoseja »

Schroedingersat wrote: post #41
reddog wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the company in the video -- Atlantic Richfield Company, aka ARCO -- acquired the pit in 1977 only to shut it down in 1982 after discovering what a white elephant it was. The company that actually dug the thousands of miles of tunnels and later the pit was Anaconda Copper (one of the most rapacious, amoral corporations to ever exist) which went belly up in 1983. Anaconda Copper made fortunes for the usual susp…

Then we hold the people who profited off of Anaconda responsible for it rather than shrugging and going 'oh well, the laws they wrote say we just have to let them keep doing it.' Easy fix to get it done, the rockefellers and rothschilds are visiting the bottom of the pit naked in 2025. Their choice as to whether it is still full of poison.

They literally own/control the state violence apparatus.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#57

Post by kortilla »

andrewstuart wrote: post #40
jonas21 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said they simply get away with it? BP is responsible for cleaning up the site, at an estimated cost of $150M. They're responsible because they bought ARCO, which had acquired the site from the original mining company. They're the ones who built the water treatment plant that's shown in the Tom Scott video that someone linked to, and either they or Montana Resources (a mining company) are paying for everything sho…

What does "cleaning up" mean? Wouldn't that mean moving the toxic stuff to some other part of the environment?

Treating the water and returning it to the environment as clean water. It’s simple chemistry to remove the metals. The process isn’t unknown, it’s just expensive.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#58

Post by kortilla »

tofof wrote: post #6

It's frustrating that the description of the video and the first few seconds of the video both establish a narrative of "acid cooking birds from the inside out " if they spend a few hours in the water, which makes absolutley zero sense. At no point in the entire video is that claim revisisted or explained.

The acidity isn’t the problem, it’s the metals. The acidity is about the same as a Coke.

Re: A man who shoots at birds to keep them off a toxic pit [video]

#59

Post by noetic_techy »

I would think that some enterprising university could get the funds to set up an automated system with AI to recognize and shoot near the birds at a distance. Some decent learning in optics and AI to be had there. Sure that guy would lose his job, but it seems pointless to dedicate one man to do this all day.
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