As GTAC Plans Waste Rock, Mine Debris Dumping For 35 Years, Consider...

What's happening right now to toxic waste and tailing dump sites in Tarsandia, Canada:

Fort McMurray, Home to 176 Square km of Tar Sands Tailings Ponds, Overwhelmed by Floods

More proof for the argument I made here about the GTAC mine's projected glorious operations and reclamation, even though the rock, containing acidic-producing elements, will be dumped in lakes, on a watershed, near rice-growing estuaries close to Lake Superior:

[Spokesman Bob] Seitz said the process would involve the creation of what would essentially be a large hill of mining tailings that would be covered over with earth and replanted at the conclusion of open-pit mining activities in the first stage. The second stage would dispose of its tailings in the first pit, while the second pit would, at the conclusion of its operational life, be turned into a 355-acre lake. That lake would be graded to produce gentle slopes, making it conducive to recreational uses.

And:

“Once you build that hill, you can cover a portion of it with topsoil, you can concurrently reclaim it, which means that you have a much smaller portion of the waste area that is open and by the time the process is complete, you are actually going to have mature trees or whatever the reclamation plan calls for,” Seitz said. 

Color me skeptical.

And skeptical, also, because of this:

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013

Check Out This Account Of Recent, Massive Open Pit Mine Slide

Since we're on the topic of open pit mine operation, safety, and planning right here in Wisconsin - - take note that there was in April the biggest landslide at a massive open pit copper mine in Utah in 36 years, and it began with movement measured in a fraction of an inch.
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Aerial shot of landslide in Bingham Canyon copper-gold mine near Salty Lake City, Utah. Photo courtesy Kennecott Utah Copper via Facebook.