Placeholder for comments on the self-described White Hat agencies and why people who wear white hats aren’t always the good guys….
Here is where you will find position papers, observations, and other forms of ammunition with which to counter some of the preceptions, propaganda and outright lies being propagated by government agencies, environmentalists, and others upon the public.
Included here will be topics covering the F.A.S.T. program; the Stay-Out, Stay Alive campaign; the IG Report on AML; various White Hat Agencies; etc.
Since 1992, the OSM has awarded agencies an annual Abandoned Mine Reclamation Award in order to give public recognition to those responsible for the nation’s most outstanding achievement in environmentally sound surface mining and land reclamation and to encourage the exchange and transfer of successful reclamation technology. However, the awards nomination process only allows state agencies to nominate themselves
http://www.osmre.gov/topic/awards/Awards.shtm
The Western Regional award in 2008 was awarded to: Utah, for a reclamation project they did over 5 years ago…. IF they asked mining historians about this nomination, they would have gotten a different response: GLS on Cottonwood Wash
Never again will Cottonwood ring with the sights and sounds and smells of a bustling mining camp. Very soon, even the visual reminders of those great days may well be gone, victims of a litigious society, in which individuals dream of suing the government for any real or imagined injury sustained on the public domain.
An archeologically rich area inhabited for three thousand years and extensively mined for vanadium and uranium in the 20th century, this site was littered with radioactive waste and open mines that threatened public safety. At Cottonwood Wash, cooperative partnering between agencies maximized both funding and expertise to reclaim 264 acres and bring the land back to productive use. Seventy-three miles of mine exploration roads have been reclaimed, 213 adits have been sealed and 66 shafts are now safeguarded. Report on the reclamation project
The errors and assumptions and mistruths are so many that it is hard to pick a place to start…
the site was littered…..
calling mining cultural features litter is to demean mining history.
open mines threatened public safety..
this is always the white hat mantra…as if ANY open mine automatically
threatens public safety..
bringing the land back to productive use. Mining wasn’t productive use?
What is being produced in Cottonwood Wash today?
Especially when 73 miles of road were obliterated [reclaimed] and adits sealed and shafts “safeguarded…”
The BLM brags on their website that this reclamation was an example of how to do things right
However, their own words speak of a neglect and dismissal of historical values [in over 5 years, they have yet to finish these things they say will be built:
An onsite informational kiosk and an educational pamphlet are being developed, both of which will explain the mining history and reclamation work completed in the watershed. Prior to sign installation, an environmental assessment must be conducted to ensure that no additional negative environmental impacts result. [An EA must be conducted to put up a sign decribing what no longer is there?]
The Four Corners area in the southwestern United States attracts sightseers from far and wide every year to explore the ruins of early Native American civilizations. The Cottonwood Wash area, first inhabited by the people of the Puebloan Culture, is rich in artifacts; potsherds and other remnants from almost 7,000 years of human inhabitants are apparent with nearly every turn of a shovel. Historic relics of the area’s mining legacy are also scattered throughout Cottonwood Wash. [These are the same relics that litterred the wash?]
Notably, some of Madame Curie’s early radiation experiments were possible due to the samples she reportedly collected from the area. Additionally, vanadium and uranium from Cottonwood Wash supported the Nation’s steel and atomic endeavors.
Where in the BLM system is a sign, a plaque, or anything other than their webpage that memorializes the role Utah played in Madame Curie’s amazing discoveries?
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