Thousands of snow geese die in Montana after landing on contaminated water

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Thousands of snow geese die in Montana after landing on contaminated water

Associated Press
Wednesday 7 December 2016 01.28 GMT

Several thousand snow geese have died after a snowstorm forced large flocks to take refuge in the acidic, metal-laden waters of an old open pit mine in Montana.

Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for mine company Montana Resources, said witnesses described the pit as like “700 acres of white birds” on 28 November.

Along with Atlantic Richfield, Montana Resources is responsible for Berkeley Pit in Butte.

Since 28 November, employees of MR and Arco had used spotlights, noise makers and other efforts to scare or “haze” the birds off the water and prevent others from landing.

The companies estimated that more than 90% of the birds had been chased off by 29 November, Thompson said.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/07/thousands-of-snow-geese-die-in-montana-after-landing-on-contaminated-water

[PearliePoo2]

1. Beyond sad.

I can't even open the link because it breaks my heart. Man has fucked up the earth so bad and the innocent animals are paying the price.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Adding a link. WaPo, not AP.

Thousands of Montana snow geese die after landing in toxic, acidic mine pit

By Ben Guarino
https://twitter.com/bbguari

December 7 at 5:00 AM

Snow geese migrate in huge, honking flocks, each bird winter-white except for a beak and wingtips smudged black. A single flock may comprise tens of thousands of birds. When the geese land en masse, bird hunters call it a swirl, as though a twister were touching down rather than four pound animals.

On Nov. 28, a great flock of snow geese traveling south came upon a small body of water in Butte, Mont. They swirled.

This was no ordinary pond, however. It was the 700-acre Berkeley Pit, a former mine now submerged in water as acidic as distilled vinegar. From 1955 until operations ceased in 1982, miners extracted nearly 300 million tons of copper ore from the pit. They left behind an immense crevasse, which filled with water 900 feet deep. Concentrated within the floodwater are arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, zinc and other inorganic compounds.

After it was abandoned, the pit became a federally managed Superfund site. It also became a tourist destination, where visitors observe the mine’s toxic, reddish water for an admission fee of $2. And microorganisms able to survive in the pit became an object of scientific study.

The Montana Standard