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halffullpenguin t1_j8kim3s wrote

Reply to comment by vacuum_everyday in TIL The Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is almost 4000 feet deep (that's 3X as tall as the Empire State Building). It's the largest man-made excavation and the deepest open-pit mine in the world. It's also visible to the naked eye from space. by lqwertyd

Im sorry what? I am an environmental geologist who was trained at the university of Utah. I have studied this subject in depth. everything you have said is completely wrong. industry as a whole accounts for around 10% of Utah's air pollution. I have never seen a single publication putting Kennecott's numbers anywhere close to 30% the highest number I have ever seen for them was 18% of total pollutants and that was including every gram of overburden moved. also daybreak exists as part of a massive cleanup project. all of that land has been cleaned to an inch of its life and millions of dollars have been put into cleaning up the water in that area.

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vacuum_everyday t1_j8ln30u wrote

That stat was pulled from the Utah Physicians for a Healthy environment, link. I recognize this is an interest group.

But with that said, it was also revealed this month that a single magnesium plant makes 10-25% of all PM 2.5 air pollution in the Valley. Interesting snippet from the NOAA report: “Prior to the NOAA study, the chemical composition of PM 2.5 in northern Utah, and how it forms, had received considerably less attention than in other regions of the nation despite the severity of the problem in Utah.” https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2931/One-facility-makes-a-big-contribution-to-Salt-Lake’s-winter-brown-cloud

I believe Utah State University (will need to double check) is launching a further investigation into who pollutes the most. It’s shocking really that we don’t track this seriously, but the state government turns a blind eye, as industry always gets what they want. I’d expect further studies to be quite damning of industry, and especially Rio Tinto.

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