Friday Quote: Spokane Riverkeeper

My field trip up north last week concluded with a visit to the Midnite Mine where I experienced scorched earth, a glowing waste water pit and simple, yet valuable advice.

This is the second part of my two-part dialogue chronicling my journey north last week with the SHAWL Society and the Spokane Tribe. Yesterday’s post about my river trip can be found HERE .

For a guy from Butte, Montana, the site of open pit mining isn’t nearly as shocking as I’d imagine it would be to someone with no preconceived understanding or experience. Which isn’t to say the site of giant gashes in mountainsides, glowing waste water pits, tailing piles of unnaturally colored rocks and sand, and even more unnaturally tree-less plots of forest land isn’t shocking. - an inactive open-pit uranium mine located on the Spokane Indian Reservation about eight miles from Wellpinit in Stevens County. And shockingly close to the Spokane River.

Check Bart Mihailovich’s thoughts on the great Living River blog about his journey. It’s one of the benefits he has brought to his new position as the Spokane Riverkeeper . Some of you may know him.

That’s where I found myself last week on a guided tour of the Midnite Mine