Comment

Ted Cruz Appears With Anti-Gay Hate Group American Family Association, Openly Advocates Theocracy

146
goddamnedfrank8/11/2015 1:17:04 pm PDT

Apparently most of the yellow in the Animas river is actually from what’s called “Yellow Boy,” which is not cadmium but a product of a “natural” process called Acid Mine Drainage. It’s not really natural in this case, because the mine opens a wound in the earth that grotesquely exacerbates the process, leading to the kinds of toxic waste we see here.

There is cadmium, lead and other nasties in the plume, but not as much as I first feared. It’s not clear to me if the more toxic metals come from the gold recovery process or if they’re leached from the earth via the acid drainage aftermath.