Copper Flat Mine needs so much water to operate that it will have long term impacts on the water use in this county for decades to come. It also needs a huge amount of electricity. How will that consumption affect the rest of us electricity users?
How many times have you experienced extremely low water pressure, yet the city issued no boil-water order? This time City Manager Gary Whitehead was responsible and truthful and issued one.
Guest Contributor Norm Gaume is a water resources engineer, former director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and president of New Mexico Water Advocates. He has worked on New Mexico water policy and management for decades.
Those who think about the economy in Sierra County should be comfortable with dollars and sense. Here is a dollar and sense way to think about copper mining at Copper Flat.
Continuing to think about the 500 acres of stacked tailings and what can keep the tailings from sliding downhill, I turn to the mine’s submitted technical studies on this subject. These studies do not give assurance that the miners know the answer to that question either. This is dangerous.
Several months ago, a PAWA member asked me what kept the big stack of tailings (500 acres and 200 feet deep) proposed at Copper Flat Mine from sliding down the hill. I try to answer that question. This is the first of a two-part article.
We owe the one and a half year turnaround of the city's wastewater treatment plant problems to City Manager Gary Whitehead. He's saved the people a lot of time, money and liability.
We calculate whether NMCC has enough water to mine Copper Flat in the manner proposed in its application to mine. It does not. Why, then, has NMCC applied for a mining permit?
AI Overview defines synesthesia as "a neurological condition where a trigger in one sense or concept causes an involuntary experience in another. There are dozens of distinct types, categorized by the trigger (inducer) and the resulting experience (concurrent)." Get ready to be triggered by Nolan Winkler's new works.
What was it like to work at Copper Flat Mine in 1982? Will that be what working at Copper Flat Mine will be like if the mine were reopened? This is a Labor Day meditation on working at the mine.
We in Sierra County are living in, and at long last, beginning to understand that we live day to day in a water crisis. What is the justification for allowing someone to withdraw and evaporate a million gallons of groundwater a day during that social and economic crisis?
Will Copper Flat Mine bring economic benefits to the county? A reasonable answer needs to balance both pros and the cons, not just repeat the PR blurbs. Here are some pertinent publicly known facts you may want to remember that relate to how Copper Flat Mine may impact us.