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MINING AND WATER POLLUTION

Water is essential to life on our planet. A prerequisite of sustainable development must be to

ensure uncontaminated streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. There is growing public concern

about the condition of fresh water in Canada. Mining affects fresh water through heavy use of

water in processing ore, and through water pollution from discharged mine effluent and

seepage from tailings and waste rock impoundments. Increasingly, human activities such as

mining threaten the water sources on which we all depend. Water has been called “mining’s

most common casualty” (James Lyon, interview, Mineral Policy Center, Washington DC). There

is growing awareness of the environmental legacy of mining activities that have been

undertaken with little concern for the environment. The price we have paid for our everyday

use of minerals has sometimes been very high. Mining by its nature consumes, diverts and can

seriously pollute water resources.