Only alfalfa will grow if mining happens

EDITOR:

Up by Hinton, you can find the reclaimed Cardinal River mine site which was operated by TECK Coal, the same company currently operating in the Elk Valley. Check out Perry Hayward’s Facebook post from Jan 23 “Protect Alberta’s Rockies and Headwaters.” You will see a photo of this reclaimed site and it looks pretty great. Grass as green and smooth as a golf course!

Except, it’s not grass…it’s alfalfa because that’s about the only thing which will grow there now. So far, there are no trees and there may never be trees. This site used to be a pristine mountain valley, now filled in with waste from taking down the nearby mountain for open pit mining. This waste is steadily leaching selenium into the watershed. Let’s hope our provincial government decides not to force southern Alberta down this path of environmental degradation.

Leslie Lavers

Lethbridge