Letter: Selenium a cause for concern

By Letter to the Editor on March 3, 2021.

Dear editor,

John Grisham’s best-selling book, Gray Mountain, paints a bleak and dark image of strip mining in the Appalachians of the southern U.S. 

Is this what we can look forward to by allowing strip mining in our beautiful Rocky Mountains? The element selenium is used in the strip-mining process for coal. Strip mining of the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies will wreak havoc on the scenery, wildlife, ranching, farming and tourism from the foothills and beyond.

Once in the headwaters of the Bow and Oldman rivers, it then flows into the South Saskatchewan and past Medicine Hat. Selenium is toxic and has proven to be destructive to fish and wildlife along with domestic animals and the food chain they provide to humans.   

The current provincial government had relaxed the laws that were in place since 1976 regarding strip mining, especially on the Eastern Slopes. Under public pressure, Minister of Energy Sonya Savage says she has now stopped approving leases to mining companies. But Riverdale Resources of Australia still has a lease and will go ahead with strip mining on the Eastern Slopes.  

This does not bode well for Medicine Hat. It is time our city council allay the fears of the public caused by selenium and its potential to affect the citizens of our city. Just as the city is preventing another Flint, Mich. here in the Hat by eliminating pipes with lead in them, so should they be equally concerned about the danger of selenium and its effects on our environment. Let’s start by having council officially recognize how Medicine Hat can and will be affected. 

Tom Rooke

Medicine Hat

9
-8