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What happens to abandoned mines?

2012-08-23 | 🔗

Did you know there are as many as 500,000 abandoned mines in the US, but the federal government knows where only 30,000 of them are? Learn about these places go from money pit to death trap when mine companies simply walk away.

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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
This podcast dynamically inserts audio advertisements of varying lengths for each download. As a result, the transcription time indexes may be inaccurate.
Tax day will be here before you know it everybody but relax, because each in our black, as your one stop tack shop, their tax pressure experts, certified and train and eighteen are black, has up front transparent pricing, which means you know the price before you again, no surprises and with offices open early and late. It's easy to walk in, make an appointment or just drop off your documents. Do your taxes outlawed or in your maximum refund. In your pocket visit each hour, block dot com, slash textile defined the closest office to you, it's better with black brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camry. It's ready are you welcome to stop, you should know greenhouse gas networks. Welcome cats done Josh Clark, Charles Debbie
I just had some of my notes: mixed up like criminal records, was stuffed in the middle of this one like wouldn't it be funny if I was talking about abandoned mines and then like a robot, and if you have it to you, I like it.
Police sharpen get that expunged tickets. Bad advice will now understand, do not ever call the police unless it's an emergency Europe Chuck. Yes, I'm are you don't get three did a near. They perhaps even back the office is closed right now, we're still working it's like crickets outside it and someone through spear at me. When I start my head out good, that's this assignment yet so Chuck! Yes, if I may take it down, not your two of your heard of a guy named Taylor, crane narrow kid now the tailors a kid who was sixteen years old when he died.
Who's on a tour of Mexico with his parents, New Mexico, Ex Mexico, Mexico or Mexico, and he was on a tour engine realises existed, but a of abandoned haciendas and mines. So, basically like an urban exploration, tour of or Mexico catch it and they were at an old mine, cite. The tour group was an Taylor, was apparently playing tag. Jumped upon a low wall and apparently on the other side of that was a thousand foot. Mind chat with fell into a thousand feet ten feet across cheese, wide open thousand feet down. They had a lot of trouble getting to him to recover him. Well, because there is so much the lead and arsenic at the bottom there. It was really difficult to breathe to get down there again. Well, so you
click, while it's really crazy that Mexico has these open minds. Mine blowing as it is. Mexico is not the only place as a matter of fact here in the state. We have something on the scale of five hundred thousand. And in mines. That's the high and yeah, but the low end. Even still, I think, like three hundred thousand abandoned mines, abandon mines, probably two of the most dangerous words put together and they're all over the place, a? U S is lousy with them. Yet about thirty people, I and the United States every year from accidents involve abandoned minds, and I did little lookin yeah the two. Apparently they include the quarries yeah and most of these are drownings. Yet
because a quarry there has water or an abandoned mine shaft. You know, though, pump out water to work in it, and then, when their dine. It fills back up with water, so some say crazy. Scuba, divers, well trained, scuba, diving things. My dad, certified in an old marble quarry in Toledo really and the two be surf idea to go down to a school bus at the bottom of this Corey. While he had died down to go into the school bus and grab something from it is like right inside and bring it back up than they built case certify you'd. Have that yeah? That's pretty item! trying to picture that. I can't imagine anything more creepy than having to go into a school. Yes at the bottom of a filled, the quarry. Now I'm trying to fix your dad, like all you know,
the diving in advancing buzz, cut more like a big watch, everything here. He was, sir, I guess any time, you're older and you meet someone Father when their little older it's hard to match those young set. It no make them yet. But I picture him on the couch: oh, no, not who's, who he carried a spear garnerer. He went at last. I m all right so, sadly, like I said about thirty people die each year. Many of them are drownings. I think number two on the list is ATV accident there, which then surprise makers. Too often atv on some random thinking, you're in but nowhere place and all of a sudden, the bottom Plaza literally there, yet over the top to foreign away that I came across to that. Since two thousand and apparently two hundred twenty seven people died in the United States because of accidents involving abandoned minds. I saw one in two thousand: eight, these two guys were trying to get it
were gold mine going again because they thought those still go down there and they were pumping out water with Asia, some sort of machine with the generator and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning yeah. That's that's another. I think its way down the list. It's like a distant third better, but I think it's it's I'm being overcome unable to breathe asphyxiation. That's an order! in four, by bringing in your own thing or despite the toxic chemicals down their toxic chemicals or Carbon monoxide, our oxygen depletion and general right from people the danger is all one started up or more likely, adventuring cheer and abandoned my let's go ahead and give a tip to people as we like to encourage the urban explores which, as you know, we ve done upon cast on that. But man you don't need to be hanging around abandoned mine.
Now they very very dangerous. Yes, I mean it's so mind, bogglingly dangers to resist the urge and, like I have urged to you, because I love the urban exploration. If I saw a hole in the ground, I wasn't gonna go check it out, but is not a good place to be not a good thing to do so. What's crazy, We said like up to five hundred thousand abandoned minds, envisages the mind not mine features to say every mine has several mind, features yea and added, which is a verdict, chef, yeah, I'm sorry, a horizontal schaffner! You ve got a vertical shaft like the one that poor Taylor Crane fell into. You have all these different mine features on up to five hundred thousand mind the crazy thing. Is, as of February, two thousand and eleven, the Bureau of Land Management, which is tasked with finding these a vein in mines, has only found about thirty one thousand of them. They meet those, possibly four hundred and six
nine thousand abandoned minds in the United States that no one has on any map. True but like on, on the good side, trying to find him now in two thousand eight. They only had eighteen thousand of them so that Spain, a three years they found another thirteen thousand. I had twelve thousand in two thousand there really or even better than and twenty five percent of those have been remediation have pending a or they say, aren't a danger. They say so that's just the physical dangers yeah
There's two kinds: there's fiscal dangers and environmental dangers, and I think that I guess it's of the ones they found. They said twenty to thirty percent have physical hazards in five to ten percent. Have environmental hazards there. I d, which you know it's not a time, but twenty percent is pretty dangerous. Well, a physical, hazardous insidious for the low just the local people who are walking around it sure like falling in yeah or maybe caving in and by away. I found out that any mine feature that is like a hole in the ground or even like, if there's a depression in the ground, because a mine collapse some, yet there called glory holes, You know that there was almost is take us there. That's not true it s where he got it is well. I saw assigned a day of an abandoned mind called the glory whole mind. Well, that's quite a name mine tailings you talk
and this is some the environmental hazards- and these can actually be physical hitherto of your living nearby. These are the remnants of what was going there, the mineral and often it can be very toxic and then that can either be harmful to you. Or it can run off into the water rat and be harmful to people Mina downriver. Those. My point is things like like at its and other mine feature yet their dangerous. If you Looking around the mind, environmental hazards of mine can be very far reaching cast in very much the same way, acid rain is produced from like smokestacks. These mines can produce acid rain and they can now also produce ass. A groundwater oneself so five minerals and oxygen combined with water produces acidic groundwater. They can
Luton: entire water system downstream and then also check. There's a mercury tailings are big problem, especially with gold Mine Hampshire, so you know like if you take mercury and take gold and put him together, mercury absorbs the gold and you get a rainbow ride a dead. He Rainbow in it makes, was called an amalgam and then later on. So you have like you can take little gold flexor, whatever now they're like highly portable, stable little things of mercury, and then you take him some and you can burn the mercury off and the mercury will vaporize and just the gold is left. While the problem is that mercury than mediately contaminates wherever you just burned off and raise the atmosphere and everything, but those kind of tailings are especially problematic in old gold mines to in the setting up and gold slogger bottles, probably is that where they get
I know now. I hope they are not putting mercury riddle. Formerly mercury, gold, amalgam in gold law. No, the people are goals. I couldn't do that suggests If this is such a problem, why wouldn't these companies clean up their mine sites seems like a no brainer to me there you do the work, you close it down. You clean it up, but make sure it's safer body. That's how you do now. Yes, supposedly it was not the case until Nineteen- seventy seven for about two hundred years people mine even more than that people mind in the United States, Willy nilly however, they want, and they would they would say. Well. This minds used up Any longer and walk away with a quick answer to my question on ice, answered, no is money, that's the real reason cause it's really expensive to clean up your mind site,
you're, a mining operation and yukin pre. What nineteen seventy seven you just pulled up shop and leave. Why would you spend money to clean it up? If you were a company without Nick and ethical compass and a moral compass tis, you know it's gonna hit your bottom line so screw it up, just leave it here. I can't help but feel if you set me up by asking me that question and expecting the short answer, because I've never the short answer, well, that is the short answer. Two thousand six congressional testimony said it would cost seventy two billion dollars to clean up only the hard rock minds like at the hard rock cafes. Seventy two billion dollars over the fear of land management, which we set them responsible for finding these mines and fur reclaiming on. Basically, they they divide minds that they have to deal with into three categories is hard rock
which is like gold, silver, minerals, iron, maybe yeah. I don't think they deal with iron and then there's coal mines and then uranium mines catch as well as on the east coast. They had a map allow these abandoned minds are and there's a lot of them on the EAST coast, and there were, I think, a lot of the coal mines. Oh yeah, I, like the centrality of Pennsylvania, retreated about before an abandoned town with coal seem burning underneath outright creepy. So they abandon the mines Time LAN records and least records were lost. Basically a reverse foreclosure you're, pretty much uncertainty in like no one's on the hook. No one knows many times who these originally like who was responsible for this to begin with anyone
I do know the minor to me like the idea of documentation, mind here and the government goes now and then minor, Cecile or the other little loophole. You wrote this right that you pointed out, which was if you have gone through bankruptcy, then you can be held liable. That is no longer true. I was at night now. I was happy to find their own good, there's. There's. You now have to post a bond, basically as a mining company. From what I understand from research, I did very recently that you have the post to bind colleague fidelity bond. That is money. You pay in up front that you get back if your mining operation successfully reclaims the land, if you dont reclaim, if reclamation isn't like the end of your mom mine or you go bankrupt, that money still there to pay
acclamation taking too quickly article, I guess in people's need another new year, resolutions, are very, very difficult to keep get more exercise save more money. What about this? We have a resolution that you can really work with stop wasting time going to the post office that right, you stamps that comments because they bring all the services of the? U S. Postal service right to your computer with your small business in invoices or package's or an mind seller shipping out products stamps that can handle it all with ease yank it. This was simply com. You get five cents off every first class stamp in up to forty percent of priority, that's right. You posted twenty four seven for any letter, any package any kind anywhere. You want to send it, there's no risk and using, Promo code, ass, white, ass, gay you're, gonna get this offer afore weak trial, plus free postage and
digital scale and there are no long term commitments or contracts just go to stamp that come click on the microphone top of the page and type in s. Why, as K that stance, I come from a goat s. Why, as K stamps that come never go to the polls office. Again, here's a little thing to call the clean Water ACT which Obviously, you're gonna be violating that if you're letting your toxins from your mind leak out into the groundwater, big penalties, as you pointed out, that in two thousand six those legislation to exempt people from prosecution who were actually trying to- up their minds near like our you're clean up my mind, we're gonna exempt you as long as you weren't the people who started the mind to begin with room. I guess exit from a clean war
yes from polluting because raggedy Andy on alluding with tailings alot of love cases. Just removing a year is going to gonna slipping aversion, a watershed and, if it's from say a year my mother's radioactive and right radioactive in urine you you have to pay a huge fine was the better to leave and I wonder that's better. Do not give any into the watershed while, but can you clean it up without doing that? Yes, I feel like what the government has been doing them. Fear of land management does and they have a division call the abandoned mine lands yeah. They basically just build a structure around it like what they do with Chernobyl, but I much smaller scale where it's basically like this is gonna stay here for a little while right, we'll just put this around until it's not radio
Have any hooker, that's the impression I have. What are you doing at least with radioactive stuff? Well, that legislation did not pass, though no didn't, which seems like it would discourage people from tyrannically missing up right yeah, but I also read testimony from this group called earthworks and they were lobbying against that loophole, saying it was overly broad. Really that basically like. If you just picked up a little bit of litter, whatever you're automatically exempt from Clean Water act gotcha, so it could be used to nefarious ends by a more people. While you mention abandoned Mine lands programme under the Bureau of Land Management, they get funding. A fully in the neighbourhood of twelve to fifteen million dollars a year and community said earlier, take seventy billion to clean up think just a hard rock site so they're doing the best they can over an eight year,
the cleaned up more than three thousand mines, which is awesome, but when you ve got potentially five hundred thousand out there too. Scared to think about two to remediate a mine. You have to adjust the physical stuff, any environmental stuff. You have to take care of the tailings piles you have to prevent any more acid groundwater from being yeah, yeah disassemble and carry off any old machinery, any old buildings, maybe you and you have to cover up entrances by covering up a mine chef whole, as it's called in the industry is not quite as kind drives. You think he's pretty huge heavy metal slab of richer poem is when you build the mine in a lot of cases, you ve disturbed about pop, asian here when you abandon the mine, you basically
Leaving this back population with a an awesome little place to live here, a playground if you're exactly now, better, really really essential to our comfort in happiness, in that the average back can kill something like six hundred mosquitoes an hour here when it really wants to fit frisky. So we want to keep at around there.
Eddie being decimated by white knows: fungus right yeah, so people who are reclaiming abandoned minds have figured out that there's ways that you can keep humans out, but let back in and out, and so they put I'm like back couples yeah vertical shafts, which is basically dislike her a little roof that has flat to let the bats finding out yet make sense back. Gate is virtually the same thing except. It goes into like an added that gay yeah that color and he is a great idea because, unlike you, can find a kid down in there now not disturbing the population of unless the kid is the size of a bad and even still, why is he
yeah like that boy, that's his problem, but that boys fine, so the EPA started some call the superfund, which basically means mining companies now pay into this huge bank account to cover costs the future clean up, but that's not enough to meet the needs, so taxpayers end up paying for the discrepancies. None of my tax money, don't work, then here's the thing: saving money with Geico was almost better than playing pick up. Basketball. There's always that guy who joined your game, he never passes the rock. He constantly bricks theories and who can We have you and then put his hands up and say no foul, no foul, with Geico its ease. The switch and save on car insurance, no, he'd, Facon, ankle sprain, because you're absolutely exhausted. Switch and save with Geiger. It's almost
better than sports, so apparently, nowadays since nineteen, seventy seven part The the abandoned Mine reclamation Fund is that if you are a mining company you're putting in you're paying attacks basically for every thirty one for every time of surface call yeah that you mine and every type of underground call your paying thirty one point: five cents for surface call, and I thank him point five cents, a time for underground mine, stuff and all that goes into superfine to reclaim. It has not been well this this October. I think it's gonna go down to twelve sense in twenty eight, since that really has attacks here. Things times are tough all over firmly, but the air they are the nineteen eighty six Josh. As you point out, the Department of Interior
an award for mining excellence dislike yard of the month for abandoned mine, recommending, I think it's called a mini award, the hidden thumb I'll. Joking aside, its very cool. They do this because a lot of you know people more responsible these days with her mining operations are not bad. Mining is a vital thing. We're not turned a poohpooh that we did like with Thea Mountaintop Google, coal mining, the kingdom pretty hard, but I'm a lot of minors. These days are pretty responsible. They are reclaiming this land in
going back in planning vegetation in trying to preserve all buildings and make those into live? Workspace condos, exactly what we are doing here, so that's great you keep it up is what I say I agree and be careful out their atv people and Rock Corey swimmers. Yet there, if you see a mine stay away, I believe that's. The name of the programme are really yeah stairway. Yet, like you know those cartoons, posters with exclamation, point and stuff like that near Pierre says, that's what they're com! I think, if you do see a mine gone internet lookup reporting abandon minds, and you will find a way to do it and then I'll be helpful. You'll save some money, fixing taxpayer money. If you report a minor stuff agreed, if you want to know more about abandoned mines and reclamation and all that stuff, you can type it into the search bar howstuffworks, dot com and, I said, search
time. That's right: Josh discloses out the trilogy, go and sort out with, professor, my husband, always wants to come. I beat vegetable super stoop, but it has brought face. I dont argue and basically she's, asking about this. My recommendation- Donna is too check out the podcast Judge John? How seriously? Because he had a full podcast on. I believe Chile, Chile's chatters, stews and Serbs in the difference, is right. The first one is pretty early on, Judge John will break it outbreak I've plug Chuck Ryan Taylor question. What time is it a hammer? Time be time to make the doughnuts receive your clock, Macedonia, beer clock
we count. Jeremy Glover did either you grew up watching and Griffith still thinking in the end a Griffin yeah. I certainly did. I did too and we run is there anyway. I thing here: is there anybody who is alive today? They didn't groundwater. Yet well he's asking Oh really here knows why he was still today. While that's that's why he had run. Yet he was eighty six years old, good for life is and as chair of any tailor made. And that it deserves to be characterised in ever. Third, those were the two big ones, We like the landlord entries company for a little while now something tarnish others. It is my inversely. Can you do a quick shut up? My very patient husband, a Franklin you'd, be a fun surprise. I tenaya Estonia heavily anniversary to you an ape happy anniversary.
Yeah and aid. Oh here's a given, Brandon Nicholls who'd you most like to punch in the face. That's like the vital question. Who would you fight much like the punch and whenever I think myself many times here, that's very much like fight club? Actually I get someone else, but I can't say my thinking over this area like a punch in the base, you anyone nothing so that was gonna about Vitaly says. Would you rather one hundred dot size, horses or one forced size, duck these questions. One size does not cover the one horse. I stuck his like
sharp sticks and its neck over and done with its kind of like the grudge full of guided missiles up its base year. You take one out you take ten out. If you got like a hundred deaths, sized horses culminated they're gonna, get the better, be yeah possesses creepy man. Can you imagine a hundred like one foot tall horses community? I find the dot prepare. I am. I met some good. Do Mica MIA near me, all canal says no Maya, Maya's, how's, Atlanta, really quality of life. Would you recommend? I would I love it when I'm from here and I moved back your for a reason- Josh you're, going to link latest grave robber crises, Jerry Smoking, hot, as we think she is and more my friend, but I'm going to say about that. We got the threatening was female. The failure, Jaeger
no nothing threatening really like physically threatened. Now many thing about that. I've got a couple of occasions, but never mentioned. Can you get a share? No one said anybody up about one more. Ok, let's see, why is the launcher divisive from Heidi whilst good question Heidi? While there is a good one, so on through the earth, also known as coriander for chinese salary, I believe in some quarters for cilantro yeah. That's pretty good! Thank you is divisive because it strikes different peoples. Tongues definitely is really big, downright some people
so our job is a glorious herb, including and me I love so long to other people. It tasted very much like some references, and there is actually, if your interested, a video I web. Indeed, that addresses this question and if you watch very closely the filmmaker who is a friend of mine, who I know through human put in a moment where he takes a thing, a poem, olive and puts it over taco, and it happens just for a second. But it's pretty brilliant light. You does this funny or the like this puts up on a taco. Asia were years were to say I feel sorry for people who have that taste reaction. Why do two wicked cilantro to me is one of the great great things on food and some drinks? Yes,
I put the colossal onto a Marguerite from time to time of goods runners encompassing the whole opinion very hungry. Firstly, I am too many groups in black yea. You have questions for Chuck and I you can tweak tourism as well as key podcast here and join us on Facebook, that council establishing or do you concern ass, an email to stuff podcast at discovery, not for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works, dot, com, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camry. It's ready for you
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Transcript generated on 2020-01-17.