Scare tactics on industries that built the country
By Lethbridge Herald on January 29, 2025.
Dear Editor:
Re: Speak up and say no to coal mining on the eastern Slopes – Maria Fitzpatrick Lethbridge Herald January 25, 2025
I’ve read a lot of egregious political bilge in my years and not one bests Maria Fitzpatricks hit piece on the Grassy Mountain coal project 355 kms upstream of Lethbridge. This ridiculous and factitious master piece contained plenty of misinformation and scare tactics.
To answer one question posed “what are you going to drink when Grassy Mountain coal mine goes into production and the Oldman River is contaminated with selenium…”, we must remind the writer that if selenium, a naturally occurring mineral, necessary for good health (look it up) is harmful to humans there’s some history to review on the matter. A review of the history of coal here will send Fitzpatrick’s essay into obit alongside Musk’s Space X.
There’s 3,200 kms of historic mine operations under Lethbridge and the surrounding area, yielding unfathomable millions of tonnes of coal. In coals heyday there was 300 tonnes per day shipped out of here. The river running through here, the cattle industry, crops, all vegetation etc should have been severely compromised. It wasn’t. In fact, neither the Oldman River nor any other waterway in the line finishing the journey at Hudson’s Bay hundreds of miles away failed to produce the damage Fitzpatrick scares us about.
Coal mines, which our wonderful city was built upon operated for 9 decades – 1874 to 1965. This was a time when hundreds of new and existing farms, cities and towns along river routes proposed. There was plenty of wonderful clean water available long before water management protocols as we know them today existed.
The time has come when the public would be much better served by the Maria Fitzpatrick’s among us if they buried their obfuscating hatchets and got on with the facts – the evidence. Those who continue to vent their venomous distain at the great industries that built this country have become shamefully tenuous!
Alvin W. Shier
Lethbridge
10-9
Firstly, it is wonderful to once again, read one of Mr. Shier’s respected and factual letters!
Secondly, it is without doubt that Ms. Fitzpatrick (former NDP – MLA) would compose her grossly erroneous perspective in opposition to the position of our UCP government.
I repeat my previous comments that are in concert with Mr. Shier’s…… “If the plan is to shutter all coal mines, in light of possible mineral contamination, then begone with feed lots, farming in general, asphalt roadways, over head jet traffic, etc etc!”
Yeah, according to Fitzpatric’s dicipline, we should lock everything, stop everything, “industrial revolution be damned” and go back to the stone age. Great idea huh? But what yu’all gonna do about natual events? Earthquakes, volcanos, wild fires, metor showers, vicious storms, floods and heaven forbid, “animal farts”!
“over head jet traffic”
We’ve got a ‘chem’-trail clown folks!
SMH!
Yet, just over the divide, Alvin’s ‘scare tactic’ becomes empirical fact.
Yes and the scare mongers and NDP believers don’t seem to care.
i cannot argue with your entry – the ndp in bc has not shuttered coal mining that leaves a toxic mess. and, no one goes after the mining cos that have left behind tailings of toxic sloughs – not even the ones that breached, let those that “merely” leach. not in bc, and not in alberta…not anywhere in canada that i am aware of. and if it does happen, it involves a mere fraction of the polluters.
in the end, all our :leadership” is about posturing with mighty words about clean and sustainable, but the actual fact of the matter is our “leaders” just fall in behind the big corp circus. then, we turf them, and replace them with those we turfed the time before for being liar/sleazes…and do as much again and again and again.
but, you know what, i bet if we keep on playing along the same way, well, gosh, some day, some way, we will get real leaders that really care about something other than graft and money…lol…as if.
Asbestos, naturally occurring (therefore necessary for good health) , should be added to everyone’s corn flakes this morning !
the more barbs the better
One major difference between the coal mining that has happened on the eastern slopes vs what is proposed by the Grassy Mtn mine is that the early mining was basically all underground vs Grassy which is open pit. I would suggest the this one open pit will produce more rock dump material then all the u/g mines combined. These spoil dumps from Grassy are very likely to produce the selenium contamination that is documented from the open pit mines on the western slopes. The city of Fernie has been forced to find a new potable water source as their deep well has been contaminated by selenium. The Fording, Elk River and water sources downstream in Montana have been contaminated by selenium. This will be the future of water sources from the Grassy Mtn mine if it is allowed to start their coal mine.
The federal government fisheries department knew that there was a pollution problem created, as you suggest, and fined them $60 million, but these Reform Party fools and the idiots who support them aren’t smart enough to understand that, are they ?
That $60 million fine is just the tip of the iceberg. Teck spent over a billion building selenium treatment plants at their mines with little improvement. The cost of these plants will be a drag on their and Glencores bottom line until they decide it’s a losing cause and walk away leaving the burden with Canadian taxpayers just like Alberta’s abandoned oil wells. The potential penalties from lawsuits by the indigenous tribes, local governments and US governments will make the $60 million look like chump change. I see the same happening if the Grassy Mine is given the go ahead.
I agree.
Does Alvin also praise the oil industry for letting Ralph Klein help them dump the $260 billion oil well cleanup mess on the backs of Albertans. That I was involved with for 8 years when Lougheed and Getty made the oil industry pay for the cleanup and why is he ignoring the fact that our hero Peter Lougheed was concerned enough about this coal production to put a protection, and why is he ignoring the fact that they have already been sued $60 million in B.C.
Is he proud of these Reformers who are stealing the peoples oil and corporate tax wealth, and helping the rich become richer, while those of us from the world of finance estimate Albertans have been cheated out of at least a $1 trillion and a retired oil executive thinks it’s likely $1.2 trillion. Does he support treating our doctors, nurses, teachers and students like third class citizens, resulting in these professionals leaving the province and creating a nightmare for Albertans. The list goes on and on and these mindless Albertans don’t care, do they?