A warning about mining: It could happen here, too

It had been five years since we had gone home for the holidays. Surprising family and friends always brings that feeling of excitement to your stomach just before you knock on the door.

Visits always seem to lean toward sitting and looking at old family photos with many laughs and some tears. Mom took me by the hand, pointing to a box and large envelope high on a shelf, and said, "I want you to have these, people need to know."

As she spread out photos and newspapers that had turned yellow with age, her eyes filled with tears. What lay there was heart wrenching. A calendar from 1986 shows the time each day the mine would blast and photos of the chimney and foundation destroyed by the blasting.

There before us were photos showing a 3-foot-high wall of toxic waste coming down the steep hills with such force it brought huge boulders, trees - anything in its way - across the family farm, down the road and into one of the most beautiful native brook trout streams. Fields that fed the farm animals were covered in caustic chemicals, the garden, which fed the family all year, was covered in caustic chemicals and the once crystal-clear trout stream was now dead. This same stream flows into the river, which supplies drinking water to the entire town.

The newspaper dated July 11, 1986, reads: "The ponds apparently began discharging acidic effluent last Wednesday and through the weekend in amounts that destroyed a native brook trout stream. State officials called the incident the most serious pollution event in the history of the 1,500-acre coal strip mining operation."

The toxic water from an 84-acre containment pond continued to flow for three days before anyone responded to the disaster because it was the Fourth of July holiday and everyone was on vacation.

That was 25 years ago, so we decided to take our camera and go for a walk to see the reclamation work.

The high hills that once grew lush oaks, maples and cherry trees still remain treeless from the strip mining. The impoundment ponds have huge tanks still constantly leaching caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) into the streams. These streams remain a rusty red from the acid mine runoff.

This can happen here!

Usibelli Coal Mine Inc.'s proposed mine is permitted to blast 360 days a year, which will damage the foundations of the homes of hundreds of families living close to the mine. Usibelli's slurry pond is an unlined leach system that contains toxic waste. What will happen if this toxic waste gets into our drinking water?

Usibelli tells us time and time again to "trust" them, but they received 11 Clean Water Act violations between 2007 and 2010.

Potential for a catastrophic disaster is much greater here, because the mine and slurry pond will be uphill from a tribal school, many families, Moose Creek, the Matanuska River and Palmer. How many disasters have to happen before we decide to learn from history and protect what we value most?

I have provided the photos I took to the Mat Valley Coalition. To see them, please visit matvalley.org.

Bonnie Zirkle has been an assistant hunting guide for 24 years. She has run a business in Palmer for the past 25 years and is a member of the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband have worked with the state for the past 13 years building bridges to protect wild salmon for the Mat-Su community.