Heavy Metals
Anna Aspnes Credits:
ArtPlay Palette Mountain High Paper, Sky
ArtPlay Palette Friends Staple
ArtPlay Palette Lifes Little Charm
ArtPlay Palette Take Flight Tape
Holiday Template Album No. 4A Frames
MultiMedia Suns No. 1_5
ScriptTease: 37 53 48.438 N, 107 42 38.94 W
The potent stew of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals accumulates as chemical reactions brew up sulfuric acid at concentrations high enough to dissolve steel, and leach poisons down mountainsides and into groundwater decades after mines close.
Journaling:
In the middle of the Red Mountain Mining District, we were standing at the entrance to a mine. Yellow water was streaming out of it and running downhill to a yellow orange pond. Remember how vivid the pond and the grasses were when seen through our polarized lenses.
Since the gold mine disaster in August, where three million gallons of toxic heavy metals were accidentally released from Gold King Mine, we have been even more concerned about this pollution. The drainage for this area is the Uncompahgre River, which has no fish.