WEBVTT

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[music]

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Narrator: High in the Rocky Mountains, winter snow and summer rain give birth to a river.

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This high country water flows through
valleys and canyons and sustains

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countless ecosystems, millions of plants,
animals, and people. Without this water,

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modern-day Denver, Phoenix, and Los
Angeles would not exist and could not

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continue to grow. As groundwater beneath
urban areas in the West is contaminated,

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Mountain water is becoming more
important. It is generally considered

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pure, safe, a secure resource but it is
not. The source of the water is in danger.

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The most threatened ecosystems in the
high country, the most used and most

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abused, of the subalpine valleys that lie
between 9,000 and 11,000 feet in

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elevation. Many sub alpine valleys have
already been destroyed. Sacrificed to

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toxic chemical and radioactive wastes
and irreversible damage from mining

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operations and recreational development.
On the horizon looms a new threat: acid rain.

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These problems hidden in the high
country may be dormant love canals,

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slowly bleeding a steady stream of toxic
heavy metals and radioactive waste into

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the headwaters of the western watershed:
the Western water supply.

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Speaker 1: The degradation of the water system in the United States generally and in the West specifically,

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I think, is one of the under-told stories
in America because we have such a

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limited amount and that we have so many
toxic insults that we have sort of

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laying and wait out here in this Great
West to put into it.

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Speaker 2: The pristine quality

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of natural water is a very precious
resource and it is much cheaper to keep

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garbage out of the water in the first
place than to try to get it out of the

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water once it's there. If say heavy
metals go into an aquifer, you can

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basically write off that resource.
It is so difficult, it's so expensive to get them out again.

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Speaker 3: Some people ask the
question: why do we think we have an acid

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rain problem in the West when we've got
a good deal less pollution than in the Northeast?

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And what they don't understand
though is that our lakes in many ways

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are much more sensitive, much more
vulnerable to small amounts of acid than

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the lakes in the Northeast.

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Speaker 4: In our understanding of the mountains, it is the

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base of our life in a way because when
we think about the mods were thinking

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about the circle of life itself. In the
beginning it was established that there

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is a circle life that we have to follow
and that included the environment,

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mountain, stream, water, air, and the life
itself. And the mountain is part of that

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circle of life because the life that
comes from there that is the water.

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All the resources that comes from the
mountain or from the land itself, it is

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there for purpose, and is involved with
the circle of life itself.

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And we are supposed to partake of this
in order to benefit ourselves. But yet,

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on the thinking that it has to be done in a manner by benefiting all people.

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Narrator: The hydrological
system of the West begins in Colorado's

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Rocky Mountains, where subalpine valleys
along the Continental Divide formed the

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watersheds of four major Western rivers:
the Arkansas, Platte, Rio Grande, and Colorado.

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Twelve agricultural states
downstream depend on the pure waters of

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the high mountain valleys. This is the
water that twelve million people in the

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West drink. Water is vulnerable at each
stage of the hydrological cycle but it

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is most vulnerable when it is
underground, hidden in a state known as

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groundwater in a place called an aquifer.
There is currently no federal

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legislation protecting groundwater in
the United States. Chemical waste,

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pesticides, gasoline, and sewage have
contaminated aquifers throughout the country.

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But the pollution of aquifers in the

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high country is different from the
contamination of aquifers in the

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flatlands. At lower elevations, toxins
seeped down and linger underground.

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In the high country polluted groundwater
moves. From the top of the watershed it

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eventually flows out into streams and
reservoirs.

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Speaker 5: Plants and animals but

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primarily plants and also micro
organisms to a degree are involved in

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running what we call the hydrologic
cycle, that is the cycles that provide

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everybody, all animals, all human beings,
with fresh water. And we are in various

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ways disturbing those cycles. And if we
don't have the living parts of

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ecological systems they're functioning
properly

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then you run out of fresh water. Almost
everything you see is over grazed,

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has been disturbed by mining, has been
greatly disturbed as has the the valley

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we're in now by timbering, and is now
being seriously impacted by overuse in

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recreation and other ways. So that these
are very fragile systems and they're now

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under enormous assault.

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Narrator: 65 million years
ago the collision of continental plates

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forced the land at the heart of North
America three miles into the air and

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formed the Rocky Mountains. Those
tremendous geological forces created

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both the unique beauty and the rich
mineral veins of the Rockies. Millions of

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years of wind, rain, and snow carved steep
sloped valleys in the high country.

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During the Ice Age, heavy continuous
snowfalls built ice packs that filled

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the valleys and grew slowly into
glaciers. When the glaciers retreated and

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melted away just eight thousand years
ago, the immense weight of moving ice

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changed the valleys dramatically. Carving
out the valley floor and depositing

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layers of rock, gravel, and sand. This
glacial debris formed aquifers that

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became saturated with spring snowmelt
and summer rain. The aquifer beneath the

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valley floor though hidden is a key
element in the glacial valley ecosystem.

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A cross-section of the valley floor
shows the storage and filtration system

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that purifies water as it
percolates through the aquifer.

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Surface water seeps into the earth, moves slowly underground, flows out at springs,

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and rushes downhill in a mountain stream.
These aquifers ensure the year-round

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flow of streams and rivers in the West
the history of the West.

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Speaker 1: The history of the west is the history of drought.

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And some of these droughts
have been very long periods of time,

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but if you only have a couple of year
drought, there has enough water stored in

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the various aquifers in the various
subsoil in the West and it sort of

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trickles into the existing system. There
is a natural sponge out here that is a

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very important part of the ecosystem of
the West.

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Narrator: As the glaciers retreated,

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a barren landscape of boulders and gravel
blanketed the subalpine valleys.

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Westerly winds carried spores and seeds, rain and dust, the ingredients of life into the

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virgin valleys. Over the next thousand
years through the miracle of plant

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succession, spore became lichen, became
soil, and slowly grasses, willows, aspen,

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spruce and fir established themselves in
the glacial valleys.

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Eventually,  the diverse plant life of the subalpine valleys was capable of supporting a rich

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community of animals: beaver and hawk,
grizzly bear and coyote.

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Speaker 6: The best use of

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this valley is its own use, as high
aquifer, as a storage vault, as a gene

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pool. It's its own reason for being and
in so, being it's useful to us.

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Narrator: The genetic information stored in the cells
of organisms ranging from the simplest

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to the most complex. From Paramecium to
elk, from Columbine to aspen tree,

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constitutes a gene pool that is unique.
It is the information in the genes of

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each plant and animal that programs the
organism to function in this rugged

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high-altitude environment.

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This complex
gene pool contains the only source of

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inheritable characteristics for future
evolution of the ecosystem.

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If part of the gene pool is lost
to the extinction of even a single

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species, a storehouse of potential
adaptations to future environmental

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changes is lost forever.

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Speaker 5: A lot of people think that the big

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problem with extinctions on our planet
is the disappearance of some spectacular

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endangered species. But basically the big
problem is the disappearance of the

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habitats in which live the other
organisms that support our way of life.

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And when we destroy habitat, we not only
get rid of say in California the

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California condor, but we get rid of
thousands of other populations of

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species that are less spectacular but do
very important jobs like maintain the

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quality of the atmosphere, make sure we
don't end up breathing poisonous gases,

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generate and maintain the soils that are
essential to our agriculture into our

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forestry, recycle the waste that have to
be recycled because they're used as

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nutrients for further growth of the
system, control the pests of crops,

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and control the organisms that can attack us. There is a whole wide array of services that

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are carried out by natural habitats by
natural ecosystems that we lose when we cut it down.

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Narrator: The life hidden in the
waters of a beaver pond reveals both the

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complexity and the sensitivity of the
subalpine ecosystem

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Speaker 7: The beaver is a very

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integral part of an Alpine system
because as the snow rushes off

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during the thaw, busy as the beaver, he's
out there maintaining his dams holding

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the water back. He does a lot of
different things. He stores water so it

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can be reabsorbed and come out in
another aquifer that's one thing.

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He saves the onrush, the erosion on rush down, the taking away of nutrients and whatnot

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he backs them up. He's doing it of course
for his own purposes, but in so working

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for himself he works for all the other
people in quotes:  the ducks, the oozles,

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the mink, the muskrat, all the other people in the valley, he works for all the plants in

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the valley, all the great bog plants
depend on him. He has create a dependency,

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but in a relationship.

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Narrator: As American pioneers opened the West, the
Rockies became a powerful symbol of the

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wilderness in the American psyche. The
beauty and power of the mountains were a

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source of national pride. Painters such
as Albert Bierstadt romanticized the

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mountains, captured their mystique and
stimulated the imagination of

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adventurers throughout the world.

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Beaver
pelts attracted the first fortune

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hunters. Mountain men the likes of Jim
Bridger and Kit Carson who got to know

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the valleys and then trapped the beaver
to the brink of extinction. Then in 1859,

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prospectors found gold in the stream
beds at the Colorado Rockies and the

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rush was on.

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[Music]

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Speaker 8: One thing about gold is people that are
just strictly honest on everything else

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and they see gold, they feel like they
they should have some of it. But they

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always could barely wait to get to work
figured they might strike it

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rich. Get to high-grade now working
the Fanny Rollins there and we run into

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a little vein there run 75 ounces gold
per ton. Well I could dream about big

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cars I was gonna buy in all the fun I
was gonna have you know, but by the time

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we shipped it missed and the smelter got
through taking part of it, we weren't

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that rich, you know. But it's a
feeling like a gambler gets, I guess you

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know playing poker and he's always
looking for for the big fortune. But in

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the early days, there was no thought at
all about environment, you know. And they

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thought that they hit them huge or
bodies down there just out of town and

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they thought they'd be forever, you know.
And they'd put up a mill and just dump

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the tailings out in the hillsides that
wherever they went. They didn't

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build a dam or trying to contain them or
anything because nobody thought anything

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about the environment.

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Speaker 1: The kind of
negligence that we did, the rape of the

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West, was in fact coming in here, putting
placer mines, putting up mines there was

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no laws about pollution of any kind. And
the best way that people felt that they

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could dispose of the pollution was just
a throw it and wherever that they happen

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to see the handiest place. And so the
history of the the West is a history of

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a lot of exploitation and an awful lot
of feeling on a part of the miners that

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they weren't gonna live here. They came
here only to make their fortune. A lot of

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people didn't think that any people
could live here on any kind of sustained

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basis. And they didn't spend a lot of
time worrying about how they were

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disposing of their various pollution
causing items. Now, that legacy is coming

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back to haunt us, that we have a mine
that has not operated since the 1870s

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over in Leadville that puts a daily dose
of very heavy and very toxic pollution

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into our streams in Colorado.
So, we are paying for the sins of our

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forefather miners in particular.

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Narrator: Colorado's colorful mining days are the

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stuff of legend and romance. But there is
another side to the story.

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The miners tore into the mountains in
search of oar. After they had extracted

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the riches from one valley, they would
move on to another. Today the abandoned

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mine shafts represent a potent threat to
high country water. The old mines have

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filled with acidic water that overflows
into streams.

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David Holm of the Colorado

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Mine Land Reclamation Board is in charge
of a state program that is located

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50,000 abandoned metal mines in the high
country of Colorado.

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Holm: In Colorado, there

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are literally hundreds of mines that
we've studied which are contributing

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significant quantities of heavy metals
and acidity to receiving streams.

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Altogether, 25 major watersheds have been
seriously affected. We've located at

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least 450 stream miles very adversely
impacted by this problem of acid mine

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drainage. If all of the small receiving
streams that directly get water from

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abandoned mines was added I'm sure many
thousands of stream miles have been

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affected adversely. Iron and lead and
zinc and copper and gold and silver

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certainly, which originally brought the
miners into these areas are our problem

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from the standpoint of water quality. The
water from the fault zones flows across

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these ore bodies picks up the dissolved
metals and at the same time a tremendous

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amount of acidity is released into the
water, and the process of acid mine

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drainage begins. Once started, it never
ends. The problem of mine drainage I believe

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is really the most serious water quality
problem in Colorado.

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Narrator: Patrick Davies of the Colorado Division
of Wildlife is an aquatic toxicologist

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and an expert on the effects of metals
on fish.

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Davies: The important point is that

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these activities, this infiltration of
water into mines, will occur

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forever and there will be a continual
loading of metals from these sources.

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And in the future as we get better methods
maybe we may be able to go into some of

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these areas and better control those. But
it's been occurring now continuously in

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many minds for over a hundred years. And
for the most part, for most mine

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situations is going to occur for many
thousands more years before men can

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do anything about it. With things like
lead you get the severe physical

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abnormalities: Lauro scoliosis. spinal
deformities. erosion of the caudal fin

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and things like that.
But with an element like silver, you can

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get severe reductions in growth of the
fish. Selenium causes severe lesions to

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develop, initially around the gills
but it ultimately will spread over the

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whole body. Something like mercury and
selenium will cut, will concentrate in

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the tissues and then you end up with a
particular concern relative to human consumption.

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Narrator: The Environmental Protection Agency has

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designated five high country mining
areas as superfund sites. New Jersey Zinc

218
00:19:49.580 --> 00:19:55.370
near Gillman, California Gulch in
Leadville, the Argo Tunnel in Central

219
00:19:55.370 --> 00:20:01.700
City, the Smuggler Mine in Aspen, and the Uravan Uranium Mill. The state of

220
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Colorado meanwhile has filed
multi-million dollar lawsuits against

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the owners of New Jersey Zinc and
Uravan and also the Yaak tunnel in

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Leadville and the AI Dorado mine and
mill in Telluride. New Jersey Zinc one of

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the biggest abandoned mines in the
Colorado Rockies, contains 7 million tons

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of sand like mill wastes called tailings.
The site was recently listed on IPA's

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Superfund priority list.
Eric Adeane is the Eagle County

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environmental health officer.

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Adeane: Behind us
here is tailing pond #1

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00:20:35.870 --> 00:20:40.520
and there are several springs and other
sources of water upstream in this

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tailings pond. Water comes into this pond
and it soaks down through these tailings;

230
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they're kind of sandy and textured, and
it enters the Eagle River right in front

231
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of us here and behind us. And this
seepage is high in heavy metals,

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it's also very acidic. pH has been tested
along the river here and the pH is

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tested three in some of these quiet
pools along the river. But some of the

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metals that we find in this seepage
coming into the tailings pond here iron,

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manganese, zinc. There's traces of lead
and cadmium. Well, the impacts on the

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river have developed slowly. This mine
tailings have been here since the early

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1900s. And some of the pollution problems
have occurred gradually when people have

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grown accustomed to seeing the changes
in the river and they've gotten used to

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00:21:26.929 --> 00:21:31.700
it. But now with the ski recreation
industry getting started, people

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00:21:31.700 --> 00:21:35.840
downstream are having to use this water
as a source of their public water supply,

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00:21:35.840 --> 00:21:40.220
and they're very concerned about the
heavy metals and the potential health

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00:21:40.220 --> 00:21:44.299
impacts of drinking this water over a
long period of time. The possible health

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00:21:44.300 --> 00:21:49.660
impacts to mothers with small children
and mothers with infants.

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Narrator: Telluride. Former mining town now famous for its
ski resort and its music and film

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00:21:56.360 --> 00:22:02.450
festivals bears a giant scar from its
mining past. The old El Dorado mines

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00:22:02.450 --> 00:22:07.280
produced 20 million dollars worth of ore,
while the mill generated 10 million tons

247
00:22:07.280 --> 00:22:12.020
of toxic tailings on the banks of the
San Miguel River. A study by the Colorado

248
00:22:12.020 --> 00:22:16.880
Attorney General's Office in 1986
documented major contamination of the

249
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:20.140
San Miguel River and of Telluride soil
and groundwater.

250
00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:22.120
Speaker 9: When the reports came

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00:22:22.130 --> 00:22:29.600
out recently about the contaminants in
the local Telluride soil and Telluride

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00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:34.460
water, I think that a lot of people were
shocked. And I think they were shocked at

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the very personal level of here we've
been growing vegetables in our vegetable

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00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:43.520
gardens and strawberries and some of the
things that'll grow even up here so high

255
00:22:43.520 --> 00:22:48.299
when we have such a short growing season.
And suddenly, you don't feel so good

256
00:22:48.299 --> 00:22:53.130
about that anymore, you don't feel so
good about offering your little child a

257
00:22:53.130 --> 00:22:56.700
bowl of strawberries grown in your
backyard because you don't know how much

258
00:22:56.700 --> 00:23:01.320
heavy metal will be coming along with
the strawberries and cream. There's a lot

259
00:23:01.320 --> 00:23:08.299
of concern about the water because the
tailings pond is right up here at the

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east end of town, which is basically the
top of the watershed. There's now some

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00:23:14.610 --> 00:23:20.419
real evidence that there has been
leaching of very substantial

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00:23:20.419 --> 00:23:27.840
contaminants into the groundwater, into
the streams that come down here that

263
00:23:27.840 --> 00:23:33.059
form the rivers that flow on and on. The
fish are found to be either dying or

264
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unhealthy. It's it's basically not a
wholesome situation.

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Narrator: The Yaak Tunnel is

266
00:23:41.130 --> 00:23:45.960
in Leadville, Colorado is oldest and
richest mining district. It is a four

267
00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:51.620
mile long tunnel built in 1908 to drain
thousands of underground mines.

268
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Though the mines are long since collapsed and abandoned, the water continues to flow,

269
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sometimes with disastrous results.

270
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Davies: The
Yaak Tunnel over in the Leadville area is

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00:24:03.600 --> 00:24:09.600
a tunnel that collects mine ranges from
a number of mines throughout the area.

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00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:15.929
These flow through the Yaak Tunnel and
they're depositing materials in the

273
00:24:15.929 --> 00:24:24.889
tunnel throughout. And these materials
build up in in the bottom of the channel

274
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such that you have, such as it occurred
last fall, a rupture in one of these

275
00:24:32.539 --> 00:24:36.539
deposition areas within the tunnels and
all of a sudden there's a tremendous

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00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:41.010
surge of water that comes flowing
through the tunnel, breaking out a number

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00:24:41.010 --> 00:24:45.389
of dams that have created themselves in
there. They're holding thousands and

278
00:24:45.389 --> 00:24:50.220
millions of gallons of polluted water
which then flow out into California

279
00:24:50.220 --> 00:24:54.020
Gulch and ultimately into the Arkansas
River.

280
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Narrator: Together, the Yaak Tunnel and the

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00:24:55.830 --> 00:24:59.380
nearby Leadville drain discharged three
million gallons

282
00:24:59.380 --> 00:25:05.200
of acid mine drainage per day into the
Arkansas River. According to the Colorado

283
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:10.289
Division of Wildlife, there is no life in
the river for 200 miles below Leadville.

284
00:25:10.289 --> 00:25:15.340
The Arkansas flows into Pueblo Reservoir
which holds drinking water for the

285
00:25:15.340 --> 00:25:16.960
Denver metropolitan area.

286
00:25:41.580 --> 00:25:47.920
Speaker 10: I'm proud of the Climax Mine. We found
the ore body, developed it, found the uses

287
00:25:47.930 --> 00:25:52.130
for molybdenum, and through research and
development, have actually created the

288
00:25:52.130 --> 00:25:56.870
market. And the history behind this is
like no other mined in the world or any

289
00:25:56.870 --> 00:26:00.500
how in the United States.
Very seldom nowadays do you see mines

290
00:26:00.500 --> 00:26:04.660
that have operated over 50, 60 years. You
just don't see that anymore.

291
00:26:06.120 --> 00:26:06.680
Narrator: The AMEX

292
00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:12.020
Molybdenum Mine at Climax is by far the
largest mine in the Colorado Rockies.

293
00:26:12.020 --> 00:26:18.680
In 60 years of operation, AMEX has extracted
360 million tons of ore to extract

294
00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:25.610
molybdenum, a metal used to hardened
steel. 40% of the molybdenum mined in the

295
00:26:25.610 --> 00:26:30.040
United States is used for American
military and industrial purposes.

296
00:26:30.040 --> 00:26:31.860
Sixty percent is exported.

297
00:26:31.860 --> 00:26:35.360
Speaker 10: Climax Mine is
located right on top of the Continental

298
00:26:35.360 --> 00:26:40.280
Divide, where at the headwaters of three
rivers: the Arkansas River, the 10-mile

299
00:26:40.280 --> 00:26:43.860
river, and the Inglewood.
And we don't pollute any of those rivers.

300
00:26:43.860 --> 00:26:48.270
I can guarantee you that everybody and his
brother that has a mayonnaise jar is up

301
00:26:48.270 --> 00:26:49.620
checking our water.

302
00:26:49.620 --> 00:26:52.520
Narrator: Tailings from the
Climax Molybdenum Mill today cover

303
00:26:52.530 --> 00:26:58.290
nearly three thousand acres of sub
Alpine Valley. AMEX has generated 50,000

304
00:26:58.290 --> 00:27:03.330
tons of tailings a day for 30 years, and
has dumped a total of more than 1

305
00:27:03.330 --> 00:27:09.120
billion tons of tailings into three
classic glacial valleys. Another billion

306
00:27:09.120 --> 00:27:13.350
tons of tailings will be produced in the
40 years that remains before the ore

307
00:27:13.350 --> 00:27:14.900
reserve is depleted.

308
00:27:14.900 --> 00:27:20.940
Speaker 10: Here at Climax, we
average about 280 to 300 inches of

309
00:27:20.940 --> 00:27:26.970
snowfall a year. When that snow melts,
it'll melt in about two weeks. So is what

310
00:27:26.970 --> 00:27:31.770
we have done is built a series of canals
around our tailings ponds so that the

311
00:27:31.770 --> 00:27:37.410
freshwater snow melt goes into those
canals and on down into 10-mile. It does

312
00:27:37.410 --> 00:27:42.060
cause us some problems in if it starts
to warm up too fast because we want to

313
00:27:42.060 --> 00:27:46.820
keep as much water, fresh water out of
our tailings ponds as possible.

314
00:27:46.820 --> 00:27:51.940
Reporter: I understand that there's during that
two-week period you have to bypass-

315
00:27:52.140 --> 00:27:53.040
Speaker 10: That's correct

316
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:57.140
Reporter: Your plan at some point. Why do you have to do that? What might happen if you don't do that?

317
00:27:57.280 --> 00:28:02.460
Speaker 10: If we don't have a snow melt bypass
because of the amount of snowfall, one of

318
00:28:02.460 --> 00:28:07.280
these dams could get too much water. And if that happened, it could break.

319
00:28:07.280 --> 00:28:13.110
So what we do is we have a snow melt
bypass where we take and mix the runoff

320
00:28:13.110 --> 00:28:15.580
water with some of our industrial water.

321
00:28:16.420 --> 00:28:18.240
Reporter: And there is no pollution problem with that?

322
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:25.200
Speaker 10: No pollution because it's diluted so
much. You know, if you can imagine 300

323
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.850
inches of snowfall right where I'm
standing all of a sudden going all at

324
00:28:29.850 --> 00:28:32.880
once, there's not a problem with
pollution.

325
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:34.380
Narrator: The Climax tailings are

326
00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:39.060
covered with snow nearly seven months
out of the year. When AMEX designed its

327
00:28:39.060 --> 00:28:42.750
water treatment plant the company
severely underestimated the amount of

328
00:28:42.750 --> 00:28:47.310
water that flows through the tailings in
the spring. The company's twenty million

329
00:28:47.310 --> 00:28:52.920
dollar treatment plant is too small to
handle the waste water. As a result, the

330
00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:57.840
Colorado Health Department in 1980
granted AMEX a permit that allows spring

331
00:28:57.840 --> 00:29:02.400
runoff from the tailings to bypass the
water treatment plant and flow directly

332
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:09.060
into 10-mile Creek. This means that water
containing zinc, cadmium, and other toxic

333
00:29:09.060 --> 00:29:13.470
heavy metals goes directly into Dillan
Reservoir which holds part of Denver's

334
00:29:13.470 --> 00:29:18.650
drinking water supply. Here's the outflow
of the water treatment plant in the fall.

335
00:29:18.650 --> 00:29:23.040
Here is the spring snow melt from the
tailing dumps bypassing the water

336
00:29:23.040 --> 00:29:28.470
treatment plant. AMEX is one of the most
frightening metal mines I've ever seen.

337
00:29:28.470 --> 00:29:32.670
That one mine is contaminating both
sides of the Continental Divide and

338
00:29:32.670 --> 00:29:39.360
three separate rivers at least. It is an
awesome trashing of some of the most

339
00:29:39.360 --> 00:29:42.720
beautiful country we know, let alone our
water resources.

340
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:44.280
AMEX's permit to

341
00:29:44.280 --> 00:29:49.050
legally release untreated waste water
directly into 10-mile Creek extends for

342
00:29:49.050 --> 00:29:54.960
a period of 60 days each spring. Yet
every year for the last five years, AMEX

343
00:29:54.960 --> 00:30:00.270
has conducted what the company calls an
emergency snow melt bypass, releasing

344
00:30:00.270 --> 00:30:05.760
polluted water for a period longer than
60 days. In 1983 for example,

345
00:30:05.760 --> 00:30:11.340
the emergency bypass lasted for seven months.
In addition, EPA records show that a max

346
00:30:11.340 --> 00:30:16.820
committed eighteen major permit
violations between 1979 and 1986,

347
00:30:16.820 --> 00:30:22.590
releasing dangerous levels of zinc,
copper, cyanide, cadmium, and manganese in

348
00:30:22.590 --> 00:30:27.870
violation of their permit. Neither the
state nor EPA has taken any action to

349
00:30:27.870 --> 00:30:34.860
penalize AMEX. Perhaps more serious ,there
is no groundwater monitoring being done

350
00:30:34.860 --> 00:30:39.350
at Climax. This is in spite of the fact
that AMEX's permit from the state

351
00:30:39.350 --> 00:30:45.450
explicitly requires the company to
monitor groundwater. There are numerous

352
00:30:45.450 --> 00:30:50.520
slime pits and settling ponds at Climax
containing toxic heavy metals such as

353
00:30:50.520 --> 00:30:57.160
antimony, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead,
manganese, mercury, selenium, and zinc.

354
00:30:57.900 --> 00:31:02.140
The important fact about heavy metals is
that they are forever dangerous.

355
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:04.580
They will never break down or decompose.

356
00:31:07.860 --> 00:31:12.000
These toxic elements percolate through
the massive tailing piles and unlined

357
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:16.820
settling ponds and move into aquifers
beneath the now buried valley floor.

358
00:31:17.560 --> 00:31:20.039
No one knows where the heavy metals go
from there

359
00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:24.750
because no one is monitoring them. An
educated guest says they're going where

360
00:31:24.750 --> 00:31:27.630
the water goes, into the aquifer and
downhill.

361
00:31:27.630 --> 00:31:33.090
Thus chemical waste and heavy metals enter sensitive trout habitat, irrigation

362
00:31:33.090 --> 00:31:39.210
water, and domestic water supplies. Max
Dodson is director of the EPA's water

363
00:31:39.210 --> 00:31:42.000
management division in the Rocky
Mountain region.

364
00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:45.260
Speaker 11: Looking at a lot of

365
00:31:45.260 --> 00:31:49.200
mining facilities, they do not have
discharges to waters of the U.S. In

366
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:52.380
other words, they do not require permit
under the Clean Water Act. They have not

367
00:31:52.380 --> 00:31:57.809
been designated Superfund and so there's
a regulatory void there. And in many

368
00:31:57.809 --> 00:32:02.760
instances as you look at mining ways there is not a discreet discharge of

369
00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:07.590
waste. And in many instances they are
discharging to the groundwater.

370
00:32:07.590 --> 00:32:13.799
One of the real voids that we have right
now in EPA is lack of information in

371
00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:18.600
regards to exactly what kinds of
releases are occurring from these sites,

372
00:32:18.600 --> 00:32:20.620
from these mining sites.

373
00:32:20.620 --> 00:32:24.480
Speaker 2: The kinds of
problems we see in with the metal mines

374
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:29.940
at the head of our watersheds where what
should be the the springs of renewal are

375
00:32:29.940 --> 00:32:33.049
becoming the sources of poison in our
lives,

376
00:32:33.049 --> 00:32:38.010
suggests a breakdown of regulation which
we thought was protecting us, and it

377
00:32:38.010 --> 00:32:39.440
obviously isn't.

378
00:32:40.100 --> 00:32:44.120
Speaker 12: It's really critical
on that regulation issue that we take

379
00:32:44.130 --> 00:32:49.020
action quickly. As Emory mentioned,
once the heavy metals get into the

380
00:32:49.020 --> 00:32:54.059
aquifers you cannot get them out.
Regulation ten years from now to make

381
00:32:54.059 --> 00:32:57.899
sure that the water getting to people
has been cleaned up is a much less

382
00:32:57.899 --> 00:33:02.760
cost-effective answer than regulation
now to make sure that the metals don't

383
00:33:02.760 --> 00:33:04.640
get into the water in the first place.

384
00:33:04.940 --> 00:33:08.460
Speaker 2: We are used to thinking that toxic waste

385
00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:12.530
disposal is a problem of places like
Love Canal,

386
00:33:12.530 --> 00:33:18.799
and you notice it when say your children
get sick. What's happening up in the

387
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:22.429
mountains is in a way more dangerous and
more insidious because there aren't so

388
00:33:22.429 --> 00:33:26.240
many people around there to act as the
miners' canaries and tell you that

389
00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:31.909
something's going wrong. And yet, the
the extent of the problem and the way

390
00:33:31.909 --> 00:33:37.549
it's irreversible once it happens. It's
just as bad as for dumping industrial

391
00:33:37.549 --> 00:33:41.400
wastes into our water right where we
live.

392
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:44.940
Narrator: What about the future of Climax?

393
00:33:45.060 --> 00:33:49.220
Speaker 10: At the end of the life of mine about the 30
years from now, the tailings will

394
00:33:49.220 --> 00:33:53.330
actually go from this tree level down
where the water is up to approximately

395
00:33:53.330 --> 00:33:58.610
this tree level. Then, go all the way down
the valley and we will start our

396
00:33:58.610 --> 00:33:59.640
reclamation plan.

397
00:34:03.280 --> 00:34:07.039
Davies: Purely covering a
tailing pile with earth is not going to

398
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:13.190
stop the flow of metals through
groundwater or from rain precipitation

399
00:34:13.190 --> 00:34:17.300
coming on top of the tailing pond. These
will leach, through pick up tremendous

400
00:34:17.300 --> 00:34:20.990
loads of metals, it'll leach through and
eventually going down into a

401
00:34:20.990 --> 00:34:27.919
stream. So even though things visually
may look much improved in terms of not

402
00:34:27.919 --> 00:34:32.270
being as sore, eye sore, in terms of raw
tailings sitting there on top of the

403
00:34:32.270 --> 00:34:37.580
ground leaching metals, covering it up does
not stop the problem. So many of these

404
00:34:37.580 --> 00:34:43.010
areas tend to and will continue to be
problems into the long distant future,

405
00:34:43.010 --> 00:34:44.540
million years or more.

406
00:34:45.020 --> 00:34:49.700
Speaker 12: We are using ,
in case  many of these mines, public lands,

407
00:34:49.700 --> 00:34:55.310
the tailings, and the water flow out of
it certainly is on public lands, going

408
00:34:55.310 --> 00:34:59.450
into public drinking water. If the
companies were required to pay the cost

409
00:34:59.450 --> 00:35:04.390
of the damage they're causing, the cost
of the molybdenum would be such that

410
00:35:04.390 --> 00:35:11.300
alternatives would be found very rapidly.
We are making an enormous public gift to

411
00:35:11.300 --> 00:35:15.859
these private companies to enrich their
shareholders and I think it's about time

412
00:35:15.860 --> 00:35:19.340
they started paying the real cost that
they were imposing on all of us.

413
00:35:19.480 --> 00:35:24.260
Speaker 2: The molybdenum mine in the form of powdered
rock from the molybdenum

414
00:35:24.270 --> 00:35:28.200
recovery operations generates what's
basically heavy-metal soup. There's just

415
00:35:28.200 --> 00:35:33.450
about every kind of heavy metal in there
you can think of. It is going into our

416
00:35:33.450 --> 00:35:38.430
aquifers. We are poisoning our water
supplies at the source, the first

417
00:35:38.430 --> 00:35:40.980
civilization probably ever to have done
that.

418
00:35:48.160 --> 00:36:25.880
[Music]

419
00:36:26.360 --> 00:36:31.720
Speaker 4: There is a circle and a continuous
circle with the water. And it goes up

420
00:36:31.729 --> 00:36:38.719
into the air and it falls back down. And
usually the mountains is where all the

421
00:36:38.719 --> 00:36:44.509
moisture goes to in the form of clouds,
rain, and the snow goes up into the

422
00:36:44.509 --> 00:36:49.700
mountain is where it comes from. There is
a continuous circle and we compare that

423
00:36:49.700 --> 00:36:54.860
with a life. And then if we're not very
careful, this is what we're doing to it;

424
00:36:54.860 --> 00:36:56.420
we're breaking the circle of life.

425
00:36:57.300 --> 00:36:58.999
Narrator: Another hidden threat to high country

426
00:36:58.999 --> 00:37:04.069
water is acid rain: the name given to
various forms of air pollution that fall

427
00:37:04.069 --> 00:37:08.989
to earth with rain and snow or as solid
particulates that fall right out of the

428
00:37:08.989 --> 00:37:14.299
clear blue sky. Acid rain threatens
subalpine ecosystems because acidic

429
00:37:14.299 --> 00:37:19.249
water leaches metals from granite peaks,
thin mountain soils, and also from mining

430
00:37:19.249 --> 00:37:23.479
wastes. These metals can upset the
delicate chemical balance of lakes,

431
00:37:23.479 --> 00:37:27.680
streams, and rivers.
Acid rain has a particularly strong

432
00:37:27.680 --> 00:37:31.080
impact on aquatic organisms, plants, and
trees.

433
00:37:32.120 --> 00:37:34.180
Speaker 5: In my view the most serious threat

434
00:37:34.190 --> 00:37:37.849
to water quality here and to ecosystems
here as well as over much of the

435
00:37:37.849 --> 00:37:42.259
northern hemisphere is acid rain. And as
I suspect, many of your viewers know in

436
00:37:42.259 --> 00:37:45.170
recent years we've seen that there's a
gathering threat of acid rain not just

437
00:37:45.170 --> 00:37:48.109
in the eastern United States but also in
the western United States, and we now

438
00:37:48.109 --> 00:37:51.499
know through the work of John Hart
that is a very potentially serious

439
00:37:51.500 --> 00:37:52.980
problem here in the high country.

440
00:37:53.540 --> 00:37:55.840
Narrator: John Hart, a scientist at the Rocky Mountain

441
00:37:55.849 --> 00:38:00.589
Biological Laboratory in Gothic Colorado,
is measuring the increasing levels of

442
00:38:00.589 --> 00:38:04.999
acid rain in the Rockies and the impact
this acidic precipitation is having on

443
00:38:04.999 --> 00:38:05.877
the environment.

444
00:38:05.877 --> 00:38:09.170
Hart: There's no doubt that
acid rain and snow are falling in this

445
00:38:09.170 --> 00:38:14.839
ecosystem. The, an ecosystem is at risk to
ask the deposition when three things are

446
00:38:14.839 --> 00:38:20.359
true: when acid rain or snow or falling
at the site, when the soils and the

447
00:38:20.359 --> 00:38:24.789
waters in the site have very little
buffering capacity to protect themselves

448
00:38:24.789 --> 00:38:30.739
against acid deposition, and when
sensitive organisms inhabit the site.

449
00:38:30.739 --> 00:38:34.789
And all three things are true in this
watershed. The rain and snow that fall

450
00:38:34.789 --> 00:38:39.799
here are acidic, the
average pH of summer rain is about

451
00:38:39.799 --> 00:38:47.630
4.6, and the annual average pH of rain
and snow together is about 4.9. And those

452
00:38:47.630 --> 00:38:50.700
levels are acidic enough to cause us
concern.

453
00:38:51.580 --> 00:38:53.239
Narrator: At a high altitude research site

454
00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:58.130
in the Elk mountains Hart has documented
an acid pulse which occurs in the spring

455
00:38:58.130 --> 00:39:03.410
when melting snow containing a six-month
accumulation of acidic pollutants floods

456
00:39:03.410 --> 00:39:05.960
into high country lakes and streams.

457
00:39:06.700 --> 00:39:09.559
Hart: The
soils in the eastern United States have

458
00:39:09.559 --> 00:39:14.690
been noticed to play a major role in
helping to protect lakes. Out here,

459
00:39:14.690 --> 00:39:18.900
we have such thin soils that we don't have
much of this protection mechanism.

460
00:39:18.900 --> 00:39:22.800
We have very steep slopes, as
you can see in the hills behind me,

461
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:27.860
the mountain slopes are steep which
means that snowmelt runs over them very quickly.

462
00:39:27.860 --> 00:39:32.100
So there's not much time for the
snowmelt to percolate through the soil.

463
00:39:32.109 --> 00:39:37.730
All of these factors combine to make the
the watersheds in the alpine and

464
00:39:37.730 --> 00:39:42.240
subalpine regions of the West especially
vulnerable to acidity.

465
00:39:42.240 --> 00:39:43.549
Narrator: This map shows the

466
00:39:43.549 --> 00:39:48.780
regions in the West the EPA has found to
be extremely sensitive to acid rain.

467
00:39:48.780 --> 00:39:54.259
They are in the high country of the Rockies,
the Sierras, and the Cascades. These are

468
00:39:54.259 --> 00:40:00.589
the areas where acidic precipitation has
been measured. A 1986 EPA study of

469
00:40:00.589 --> 00:40:04.400
mountain lakes in the West found that
two-thirds of the lakes lack the ability

470
00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:09.079
to neutralize acid rain and could
quickly turn acidic if subjected to

471
00:40:09.080 --> 00:40:14.560
increased pollution. Damage could be
rapid and irreversible.

472
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:23.220
Attorney Bob Young Key of the
Environmental Defense Fund has helped

473
00:40:23.220 --> 00:40:26.620
draw national attention to the acid rain
problem in the West.

474
00:40:27.140 --> 00:40:28.080
Young Key: During the spring

475
00:40:28.089 --> 00:40:32.469
snowmelt when all of the pollutants that
are trapped in the snow over the winter

476
00:40:32.469 --> 00:40:38.440
are suddenly released into the lake,
we're seeing the temporary acidification

477
00:40:38.440 --> 00:40:44.109
of those lakes. And what I mean by that
is that the pH is dropping down to below

478
00:40:44.109 --> 00:40:51.430
five to 4.9, which is 70
times more acidic than it normally is at

479
00:40:51.430 --> 00:40:57.640
other times of the year. And when you get
pH is that low, those are levels that we

480
00:40:57.640 --> 00:41:04.299
know will kill aquatic organisms. We also
know that in that same area, there's been

481
00:41:04.300 --> 00:41:07.160
a major decline in the in the salamander
populations.

482
00:41:07.720 --> 00:41:09.180
Hart: One of the types of

483
00:41:09.190 --> 00:41:14.920
organisms is known to be very sensitive
to acidity are salamanders and frogs.

484
00:41:14.920 --> 00:41:20.739
And we happen to have had a number of the ponds at this watershed population of

485
00:41:20.739 --> 00:41:28.210
salamanders which is in the same genus
of salamander as the salamander which

486
00:41:28.210 --> 00:41:32.499
was practically eradicated from the
lakes of the Adirondacks because of acid

487
00:41:32.499 --> 00:41:38.109
rain. And so, we're keeping close tabs on
that species as an indicator of acid

488
00:41:38.109 --> 00:41:39.580
rain damage here.

489
00:41:39.580 --> 00:41:42.849
Narrator: Hart's data reveals
that after a steady decline for five

490
00:41:42.849 --> 00:41:48.249
straight years, the salamander population
in these ponds dropped by 50% in just

491
00:41:48.249 --> 00:41:55.479
one year, between 1985 and 86. Cutthroat
trout is another species that is

492
00:41:55.480 --> 00:41:59.640
extremely sensitive to changes in
acidity and chemical balance in streams.

493
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:04.660
Many species of trout spawn in the
spring, at the same time that acid

494
00:42:04.660 --> 00:42:06.540
snowmelt floods the stream.

495
00:42:09.080 --> 00:42:11.400
With
fishermen contributing some six hundred

496
00:42:11.410 --> 00:42:16.329
million dollars per year to the Colorado
economy, acid rain is now a direct threat

497
00:42:16.329 --> 00:42:18.860
to one of the region's major sources of
income.

498
00:42:21.820 --> 00:42:30.260
Davies: Acid rain decreases pH. With every unit change drop in pH let's say from seven to six,

499
00:42:30.260 --> 00:42:34.839
you're talking about a hundred to a thousand fold increased in metal concentrations.

500
00:42:34.839 --> 00:42:39.670
As these go into a stream, some metal
concentrations will be at levels that

501
00:42:39.670 --> 00:42:47.200
can easily kill aquatic life for 10 to
100 miles downstream. If it happens to be

502
00:42:47.200 --> 00:42:51.720
a four unit decrease, as associated with
an acid snow or an acid mine drainage,

503
00:42:51.720 --> 00:42:59.799
you're talking about a million fold
increase in the metal loading capacity

504
00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:06.840
of that water. You can see that the
stream can easily be overwhelmed.

505
00:43:07.780 --> 00:43:13.540
Narrator: There are three main sources of acid rain in the West: coal-fired power plants, copper

506
00:43:13.540 --> 00:43:18.970
smelters, and cars and trucks in urban
areas such as Los Angeles. The largest

507
00:43:18.970 --> 00:43:23.740
source of sulfur dioxide, which is the
main component of acid rain, is copper smelters.

508
00:43:24.600 --> 00:43:29.079
Young Key: Smelters account for 70% of the sulfur dioxide emissions in the

509
00:43:29.079 --> 00:43:34.839
Intermountain region. On the time horizon,
not a very distant time horizon,

510
00:43:34.839 --> 00:43:40.420
we're faced with significant increases in
pollution from new sources. The first one

511
00:43:40.420 --> 00:43:44.410
of those that we have to be concerned
about is the new smelter just across the

512
00:43:44.410 --> 00:43:51.280
border in Mexico. It's at Nakazari, it's
60 miles from the Douglas smelter, and it

513
00:43:51.280 --> 00:43:58.630
will add more new pollution, more sulfur
dioxide pollution, to the atmosphere then

514
00:43:58.630 --> 00:44:06.190
we will clean up as a result of putting
controls on the US smelters, so that we

515
00:44:06.190 --> 00:44:08.340
will not be ahead of the game.

516
00:44:08.340 --> 00:44:11.140
Narrator: American copper smelters have been a

517
00:44:11.140 --> 00:44:14.740
major factor in the growing threat of
acid rain in the Rockies.

518
00:44:14.740 --> 00:44:20.319
The Phelps Dodge Smelter near Douglas Arizona operated without pollution controls from

519
00:44:20.319 --> 00:44:28.119
1906 until it shut down in January 1987.
The plant emitted 2,000 tons of sulfur

520
00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:35.110
dioxide per day into the air.
That's 300,000 tons per year. Though the

521
00:44:35.110 --> 00:44:39.460
Phelps Dodge Smelter has been closed, a
new copper smelter in northern Mexico

522
00:44:39.460 --> 00:44:43.160
recently began operation with no
pollution controls.

523
00:44:43.700 --> 00:44:44.700
Young Key: Nakazari is going

524
00:44:44.710 --> 00:44:52.560
to emit about as much pollution as 40
coal-fired power plants. It will emit

525
00:44:52.560 --> 00:44:59.530
four times as much sulfur dioxide as all
of the existing sources in Colorado,

526
00:44:59.530 --> 00:45:04.240
all the power plants, all the refineries, and
all the other industrial sources. So it's

527
00:45:04.240 --> 00:45:10.510
a huge source; it will increase the total
so2 emissions in the mountain area the

528
00:45:10.510 --> 00:45:16.940
west by twenty five percent. That's a
dramatic increase, essentially overnight.

529
00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:21.300
Speaker 13: The Nakazari Smelter will be one of the largest emitters of so2 in the North

530
00:45:21.310 --> 00:45:25.930
American continent. And based on our
state of knowledge right now it appears

531
00:45:25.930 --> 00:45:30.520
that that smelter is directly upwind
from many sensitive ecosystems in the

532
00:45:30.520 --> 00:45:35.560
western United States. And we're
concerned that that that source is a

533
00:45:35.560 --> 00:45:40.720
completely uncontrolled source will
significantly increase the pollutants

534
00:45:40.720 --> 00:45:45.800
that cause acid rain in the West and
will affect ecosystems.

535
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:47.230
Narrator: Loss of fish from

536
00:45:47.230 --> 00:45:51.040
lakes and streams are the most visible
and startling effects of Western air

537
00:45:51.040 --> 00:45:56.640
pollution, but acid rain also has a
potentially serious impact on forests.

538
00:45:56.640 --> 00:46:01.420
Speaker 14: We're seeing unbelievable damage on every one of our trees and this is not

539
00:46:01.420 --> 00:46:07.180
drought damage. We had really good winter moisture this last year. And as far as

540
00:46:07.180 --> 00:46:14.100
bugs, you can strip back the bark and you
just don't see any beetles to speak up.

541
00:46:14.100 --> 00:46:19.990
There's nothing in there that is
significant that would suggest disease

542
00:46:19.990 --> 00:46:30.820
or insect damage. And yet, that is there,
and nobody's researched this yet;

543
00:46:30.820 --> 00:46:35.100
we just don't know what the damage is. We know that we're getting pollutants from

544
00:46:35.110 --> 00:46:39.099
Southern California for getting there
forest fires and smog,

545
00:46:39.099 --> 00:46:43.150
and we know that we've got heavy
pollutants in Denver and Grand Junction

546
00:46:43.150 --> 00:46:49.959
that's getting pretty bad about their air
pollution. And it's hard to say with this

547
00:46:49.959 --> 00:46:55.089
damages, but when you have a plant
species like a Juniper that lives for

548
00:46:55.089 --> 00:47:00.099
hundreds of years, and you have a whole
forest of these that is beginning to die

549
00:47:00.099 --> 00:47:07.269
off you have to start to wonder. And I'm
really very concerned, we're losing a

550
00:47:07.269 --> 00:47:12.660
pinion you see this in the pinions as
well. You're losing much of your major

551
00:47:12.660 --> 00:47:19.100
wildlife habitat and much of your major
ground cover for a semi-arid area like this.

552
00:47:19.100 --> 00:47:29.800
Certainly a possibility of acid deposition, acid rain, but we don't know. Nobody has ever researched in this area

553
00:47:29.800 --> 00:47:37.920
to the degree to be able to tell what kind of acidity we're getting, in this altitude, in this part of Colorado.

554
00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:41.319
Speaker 5: Well, there are various ways that systems get, that the ecosystems get damaged by

555
00:47:41.319 --> 00:47:45.910
pollutants like acid rain and acid mine
drainage and so on. Of course, elements in

556
00:47:45.910 --> 00:47:49.869
the ecosystems like ourselves can get
poisoned just very directly by by

557
00:47:49.869 --> 00:47:53.289
drinking the wrong kind of water. But,
much more serious in the long term and

558
00:47:53.289 --> 00:47:57.130
for the system as a whole, are the kind of
effects that you have on plants. When you

559
00:47:57.130 --> 00:48:01.509
change the acidity of the soil, when you
change the metal content of the soil,

560
00:48:01.509 --> 00:48:06.190
you very often can either very badly damage or outright kill plants from grasses to

561
00:48:06.190 --> 00:48:09.699
trees simply because plants are the
product of many many millions of years

562
00:48:09.699 --> 00:48:13.209
of evolution, and they have evolved so
that they can live in certain kinds of

563
00:48:13.209 --> 00:48:16.749
conditions. And if you suddenly come and
change the rules on them, then they don't

564
00:48:16.749 --> 00:48:20.709
do too well. And we're seeing now in
central Germany, in parts of the eastern

565
00:48:20.709 --> 00:48:25.209
United States, and I'm afraid all too
soon out here, that trees and other

566
00:48:25.209 --> 00:48:28.599
plants are simply beginning to go. It is
not impossible it will kill off much of

567
00:48:28.599 --> 00:48:33.699
the forests of the eastern United States
and parts of Europe and possibly even of

568
00:48:33.699 --> 00:48:36.200
the western United States if we don't
abate acid rain pretty soon.

569
00:48:36.200 --> 00:48:36.880
Speaker 13: We believe

570
00:48:36.880 --> 00:48:41.109
the opportunity still exists in the
western United States to prevent damage

571
00:48:41.109 --> 00:48:45.759
from an acid deposition. We have seen
little direct evidence to date to

572
00:48:45.759 --> 00:48:48.300
support the hypothesis that we already
have damage

573
00:48:48.300 --> 00:48:52.560
systems. But that doesn't mean there
isn't a problem. We know that we have

574
00:48:52.560 --> 00:48:57.930
sensitive ecosystems, and we know that we are receiving acidic inputs now. So it's

575
00:48:57.930 --> 00:49:03.750
critical that we develop a comprehensive
monitoring and research program to

576
00:49:03.750 --> 00:49:06.540
reduce much of the scientific
uncertainties that we're dealing with

577
00:49:06.540 --> 00:49:12.930
now so that we can make reasoned
decisions to protect these areas in the

578
00:49:12.930 --> 00:49:15.760
western United States from any acid rain
damage.

579
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:17.540
Narrator: What are the possible human

580
00:49:17.550 --> 00:49:21.420
health effects of the increasing levels
of heavy metals that are being released

581
00:49:21.420 --> 00:49:25.600
into the high country environment as a
result of acid rain in mining operations?

582
00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:35.040
In 1983, the Center for Disease Control,
CDC, documented a rare birth defect which

583
00:49:35.040 --> 00:49:39.270
occurs frequently in Colorado and which
has appeared in mysterious clusters in

584
00:49:39.270 --> 00:49:44.980
three mountain communities: Steamboat
Springs, Idaho Springs, and Craig.

585
00:49:44.980 --> 00:49:53.000
Between 1978 and 1982, there were 184 cases of craniosynostosis, the premature fusing of

586
00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:57.660
a baby's skull which causes bulging of
the head and possible brain damage.

587
00:49:57.660 --> 00:50:04.260
The 184 cases were two and a half times more than the 75 cases that the CDC expected.

588
00:50:05.060 --> 00:50:09.620
The cause of the birth defect is unknown,
but it's symptoms are easily recognized.

589
00:50:11.320 --> 00:50:16.440
Alban: Child is a happy child, playing on the
floor and all of a sudden is screaming

590
00:50:16.440 --> 00:50:19.800
like they have a headache or they're in
pain, they may bang their head,

591
00:50:19.800 --> 00:50:24.940
rub their head, push it against the wall, or just become all of a sudden a very obnoxious

592
00:50:24.950 --> 00:50:28.800
brat of a child and they're not normally
that way.

593
00:50:30.240 --> 00:50:31.640
Narrator: Dr. Richard Alban is an

594
00:50:31.650 --> 00:50:36.060
assistant professor at the University of
Colorado Medical School. He is one of the

595
00:50:36.060 --> 00:50:40.200
leading surgeons in the country treating
cranial deformities, and he has performed

596
00:50:40.200 --> 00:50:44.800
surgery on hundreds of Colorado infants
stricken with craniosynostosis.

597
00:50:45.360 --> 00:50:51.300
Alban: The corners of the orbits are peaking up. It's as if somebody is kind of pulling

598
00:50:51.300 --> 00:50:55.320
them up a little bit. And again, this is
an early sign of what we call a

599
00:50:55.320 --> 00:51:02.120
Harlequin sign or Devils eye and this is
a sign of coronal craniosynostosis.

600
00:51:02.120 --> 00:51:08.760
You see this to use a technical term, it's
all scrunched up in here. It's as if somebody put a

601
00:51:08.760 --> 00:51:13.680
rope around the eye sockets and pulled
them back; there's no growth occurring there.

602
00:51:13.680 --> 00:51:17.610
Obviously, one of the theories is
that it's possibly health caused by the

603
00:51:17.610 --> 00:51:27.440
drinking water, and the drinking water in
parts of Colorado is contaminated by

604
00:51:27.440 --> 00:51:34.020
trace metals from the mines, the old
mines and the current mines. Obviously we

605
00:51:34.020 --> 00:51:37.320
also find craniosynostosis in other
areas of the country where this doesn't

606
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:44.130
exist. This is a problem that is totally
unsolved, and anything that I or anybody

607
00:51:44.130 --> 00:51:46.800
else says about it right now is just
pure speculation.

608
00:51:47.600 --> 00:51:51.000
Narrator: The most recent cluster of
craniosynostosis occurred in Eagle

609
00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:54.900
County, which is also the home of the New
Jersey Zinc Superfund site.

610
00:51:55.880 --> 00:52:00.200
30 cases of this rare birth defect have
been reported in Eagle County in the

611
00:52:00.210 --> 00:52:06.180
last two years. In the summer of 1986,
mothers from all over Colorado gathered

612
00:52:06.180 --> 00:52:09.110
in Vail  for a conference on
craniosynostosis.

613
00:52:09.940 --> 00:52:12.960
Speaker 15: First of all a couple months ago we became aware that there were quite a few

614
00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:17.940
cases of craniosynostosis in the valley.
Craniosynostosis was not a household

615
00:52:17.940 --> 00:52:23.520
word in Vail like it is today. So we set
out on a program to make the public

616
00:52:23.520 --> 00:52:28.380
aware that craniosynostosis was a
problem throughout the state of Colorado.

617
00:52:31.860 --> 00:52:35.620
Speaker 16: I need to constantly be aware of the fact that craniosynostosis

618
00:52:35.620 --> 00:52:39.280
is a problem and we have to find out
what's causing it

619
00:52:39.280 --> 00:52:43.510
in Colorado, particularly the mountain
towns where it clusters. I think the

620
00:52:43.510 --> 00:52:48.040
strange thing is these clusters, the way
that seems to occur in a certain

621
00:52:48.040 --> 00:52:51.920
geographic area and then
or disappear than occur again.

622
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:58.560
I think it's very strange. I do think it's
environmental. That's about all I can say

623
00:52:58.560 --> 00:53:01.650
is I think it's environmental. Maybe the
water, may be the altitude, maybe acid

624
00:53:01.650 --> 00:53:06.060
rain, maybe cloud seeding, maybe you
know any number or a combination of

625
00:53:06.060 --> 00:53:08.640
things most likely it's probably a
combination of things.

626
00:53:08.640 --> 00:53:19.360
Speaker 17: I kind of think it's something in the water. It's the only thing that can explain why it's so geographical,

627
00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:23.440
there's groups. So to me it will make real sense if it is something in the water.

628
00:53:23.440 --> 00:53:24.560
Narrator: A major transition

629
00:53:24.560 --> 00:53:29.600
is now underway in the high country
economy. The old extractive industries

630
00:53:29.610 --> 00:53:33.960
and the economy based on mining is
slowly giving way to an economy based on

631
00:53:33.960 --> 00:53:38.460
recreation and tourism, now worth over
ten billion dollars a year to Western

632
00:53:38.460 --> 00:53:43.740
states. The state of Colorado alone
estimates the tourism now generates four

633
00:53:43.740 --> 00:53:47.700
and a half billion dollars annually for
the state's economy.

634
00:53:47.700 --> 00:53:53.220
Ironically, this new economy, based on the magnificence of the mountains, is seriously threatened

635
00:53:53.220 --> 00:53:57.600
by the environmental problems created by
industrial development and the rapidly

636
00:53:57.600 --> 00:53:59.480
growing population in the region.

637
00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:02.160
Speaker 12: In Colorado Rockies indeed and much of the

638
00:54:02.160 --> 00:54:05.880
Intermountain West, we've traditionally
believed that we have to have these

639
00:54:05.880 --> 00:54:10.830
mines because they are the basis of our
economy. What they have given us is an

640
00:54:10.830 --> 00:54:16.770
economy of boom and bust, of towns that
flare up destroy their little part of

641
00:54:16.770 --> 00:54:21.120
the land and then disappear. And we have
ghost towns all across the west from the

642
00:54:21.120 --> 00:54:25.620
old silver and gold days. We now have
modern ghost towns such as rifle and

643
00:54:25.620 --> 00:54:31.290
parachute from Oil Shale, Leadville down
below the molybdenum mine, is looking to

644
00:54:31.290 --> 00:54:35.190
a new kind of economic development,
realizing that that mine is not a

645
00:54:35.190 --> 00:54:39.290
sustainable basis for the people who
live there. They're turning to tourism.

646
00:54:39.290 --> 00:54:44.790
Now, to some extent tourists like quaint
little mining buildings; tourists do not

647
00:54:44.790 --> 00:54:49.550
like major scars on the land, poisoned
water, crud in the air blowing around.

648
00:54:49.550 --> 00:54:54.240
Tourists are coming to the Colorado
Rockies because of its beauty, because of

649
00:54:54.240 --> 00:54:58.650
its unspoiled nature, because it's a
place where they can retreat from the

650
00:54:58.650 --> 00:55:03.250
over industrialized cities, the places
where they

651
00:55:03.250 --> 00:55:08.830
work. That I think is a much firmer basis
for an economy for the Intermountain

652
00:55:08.830 --> 00:55:11.860
West than the the boom bust of the
mining.

653
00:55:13.420 --> 00:55:15.040
Narrator: The town of Crested Butte is an

654
00:55:15.040 --> 00:55:19.990
example of this economic transition.
Crested Butte is a typical Colorado

655
00:55:19.990 --> 00:55:24.010
mountain community. There is a growing
ski resort and a mountain full of

656
00:55:24.010 --> 00:55:29.800
molybdenum. In the late 1970s, this small
community gained national attention as

657
00:55:29.800 --> 00:55:33.640
it battled against AMEX, because the
mining company wanted to extract

658
00:55:33.640 --> 00:55:39.760
molybdenum from Mount Emmons, the town's most famous mountain. W. Mitchell, who was

659
00:55:39.760 --> 00:55:44.500
severely injured in a plane crash in
1970, was the mayor of Crested Butte and

660
00:55:44.500 --> 00:55:48.380
the leader of the campaign to save the
mountain and keep AMEX out of town.

661
00:55:49.300 --> 00:55:53.940
Mitchell: We wanted to make sure that this special place wasn't turned into another slime

662
00:55:53.950 --> 00:55:59.230
pit and turned into another boom-bust
town. We also fought this battle very

663
00:55:59.230 --> 00:56:03.370
much as an economic battle and it was a
positive battle; it was something that we

664
00:56:03.370 --> 00:56:08.080
were for, we were for the economy of this
town. There are too many towns in America

665
00:56:08.080 --> 00:56:12.160
that are unhealthy economically, and we
had full employment, we had a good

666
00:56:12.160 --> 00:56:16.090
economic base that was recreation and
tourism, that was the agriculture that

667
00:56:16.090 --> 00:56:21.060
surrounds us, and that was education. And
at least two of those three pieces,

668
00:56:21.060 --> 00:56:25.720
the recreation and tourism the agriculture
business, was threatened severely by the

669
00:56:25.720 --> 00:56:33.250
prospect of a huge dramatic scale mining
that AMEX proposed. I think the third

670
00:56:33.250 --> 00:56:39.640
issue really had to do with our
responsibility to to think globally and

671
00:56:39.640 --> 00:56:44.530
act locally, to think about the future of
this planet, where it's going to go.

672
00:56:44.530 --> 00:56:49.090
Are we going to continue to destroy the last
special places, the last wilderness areas,

673
00:56:49.090 --> 00:56:56.260
the last aquifers subalpine valleys that
produce not only water but biological

674
00:56:56.260 --> 00:57:01.300
diversity? Or are we gonna show some
responsibility and say to a mining

675
00:57:01.300 --> 00:57:06.010
company finally no, this is not just
yours. This belongs to all of American

676
00:57:06.010 --> 00:57:08.760
we're gonna find the highest and best
use for this area.

677
00:57:08.760 --> 00:57:09.460
Speaker 18: I think other

678
00:57:09.460 --> 00:57:13.790
communities can benefit
from our experience as well.

679
00:57:13.790 --> 00:57:18.530
Certainly in Colorado there's been a
heightened sense of awareness of a very

680
00:57:18.530 --> 00:57:24.830
fragile nature of these small watersheds,
especially as they relate to the

681
00:57:24.830 --> 00:57:29.450
drinking water of the of the communities,
and of course, further downstream there

682
00:57:29.450 --> 00:57:34.670
there's additional ramifications of poor
water quality. But, I think it's up to the

683
00:57:34.670 --> 00:57:40.360
communities that are in these small
watershed areas to really act as stewards.

684
00:57:40.600 --> 00:57:45.560
Mitchell:  Wilderness is not just the pie
in the sky, the environmental crazies

685
00:57:45.560 --> 00:57:50.390
they just want to keep it the way it is
because it looks so nice or that talk

686
00:57:50.390 --> 00:57:54.080
about the biological values, of course
those things are important. But this is a

687
00:57:54.080 --> 00:57:56.570
real economic resource for this
community.

688
00:57:56.570 --> 00:58:01.160
We do sell scenery, we do eat scenery - 
some people say you can't but we do eat

689
00:58:01.160 --> 00:58:05.000
scenery - and you can measure it in the
cash registers or the restaurants and

690
00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.109
the grocery stores and the lodging that
exists in Crested Butte, because people

691
00:58:09.109 --> 00:58:13.880
come here and spend their dollars to
enjoy this beautiful special part of

692
00:58:13.880 --> 00:58:19.609
America. So it is our economic base, and
it is something that we turn a turn a

693
00:58:19.609 --> 00:58:26.330
profit on, and it's a wonderful renewable
resource. Once they tear down that

694
00:58:26.330 --> 00:58:32.260
mountain and grind up all the rock in it
for a few pounds of molybdenum,

695
00:58:32.260 --> 00:58:39.320
and for those who don't know it, when you take a ton of ore, 2,000 pounds of rock out of

696
00:58:39.320 --> 00:58:44.680
that mountain, you get literally handfuls
of molybdenum. That's all you get.

697
00:58:44.680 --> 00:58:48.619
And you take the rest of that rock and you
destroy another valley by filling it up

698
00:58:48.620 --> 00:58:55.200
with a with the leftovers. Once you dig
up that mountain and destroy it, you have nothing left.

699
00:58:55.200 --> 00:58:59.000
You don't have any any value; all you have is something that's

700
00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:03.710
that's been incredibly damaged and
incredibly torn apart. Maybe 500,000

701
00:59:03.710 --> 00:59:08.630
years from now it will repair itself, but
in the meantime, the argument that you

702
00:59:08.630 --> 00:59:13.720
get later sunsets by removing the
mountain, I don't think is one that really sells.

703
00:59:13.960 --> 00:59:17.540
Speaker 18: The Rocky Mountain area,
especially the central Rockies of the

704
00:59:17.540 --> 00:59:24.730
Colorado northern New Mexico Rockies
as we know it, are really in a period of

705
00:59:24.730 --> 00:59:30.850
transition now. And I think we're going
to see a time when we will have to be

706
00:59:30.850 --> 00:59:35.530
more vigilant than we have been in the
past in order to protect the environment

707
00:59:35.530 --> 00:59:40.260
and especially the water quality from
the sheer numbers of people that are

708
00:59:40.260 --> 00:59:46.030
moving here permanently, using these
areas as second homes and recreating on

709
00:59:46.030 --> 00:59:51.670
a transient basis both summer and winter.
And it's it's really growth, it's really people,

710
00:59:51.670 --> 00:59:55.890
that are the greatest threats. And
whether the people are miners or

711
00:59:55.890 --> 01:00:00.670
recreationists, skiers, voters, fishermen,
it doesn't make any difference;

712
01:00:00.670 --> 01:00:07.240
they still will impact the Rockies  in a degree that I don't think we have yet to comprehend.

713
01:00:07.540 --> 01:00:11.100
Narrator: In 1982 faced with the
falling price of molybdenum and strong

714
01:00:11.110 --> 01:00:15.790
community opposition AMEX  announced it
was withdrawing its plan to turn Crested

715
01:00:15.790 --> 01:00:20.320
Butte into another climax.
However, the ski resort continues to grow

716
01:00:20.320 --> 01:00:24.610
and several mining companies are still
developing plans to mine Mount Emmons

717
01:00:24.610 --> 01:00:29.170
molybdenum sometime in the future. But as Crested Butte and other mountain

718
01:00:29.170 --> 01:00:33.010
communities are learning, the development
of recreational areas in the high

719
01:00:33.010 --> 01:00:37.900
country is itself not without cost, for
it may further reduce the number of sub

720
01:00:37.900 --> 01:00:42.190
alpine valleys and diminish water
quality. Within a seventy mile diameter

721
01:00:42.190 --> 01:00:47.500
circle just west of Denver, lie 12 major
ski resorts all with their base of

722
01:00:47.500 --> 01:00:50.900
operations in sub alpine valleys.

723
01:00:50.900 --> 01:00:53.680
Speaker 2: We want
more tourists, but at some point that

724
01:00:53.680 --> 01:00:59.140
fragile ecosystem out here is going to
have to present us with some serious

725
01:00:59.140 --> 01:01:04.480
management problems. We're gonna have to make sure, for instance, that they whether

726
01:01:04.480 --> 01:01:08.920
it's the the pollution from the ski area
or whether or not it's just simply the

727
01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:13.060
roads we cut through these mountains
that they are done with a maximum of

728
01:01:13.060 --> 01:01:14.640
environmental consciousness.

729
01:01:14.640 --> 01:01:17.830
Narrator: Pitkin
County Commissioner Bob Child, a rancher,

730
01:01:17.830 --> 01:01:21.360
is concerned about uncontrolled growth
in the high country.

731
01:01:22.700 --> 01:01:23.800
Child: In Colorado as a

732
01:01:23.800 --> 01:01:32.059
whole I see the selling of land is
becoming all-important. Land has become

733
01:01:32.059 --> 01:01:38.809
a commodity to be dealt with rather than
something to be treasured and protected

734
01:01:38.809 --> 01:01:45.140
and cherished. Instead of confining our
growth and our residences to towns or

735
01:01:45.140 --> 01:01:50.479
within town walls. You might say, in them
allowing the countryside to be

736
01:01:50.479 --> 01:01:55.489
countryside. We have sort of a mixed bag
here and we try to make the country

737
01:01:55.489 --> 01:02:01.519
be all things and in so doing that way
it becomes really nothing; it becomes a

738
01:02:01.519 --> 01:02:06.920
form of strip or scattered development,
one that can't support agriculture,

739
01:02:06.920 --> 01:02:12.489
and one that really it's not a very
practical place for people to live.

740
01:02:12.489 --> 01:02:17.779
And maybe there aren't just solutions, maybe there's not a law that we can pass that

741
01:02:17.780 --> 01:02:24.380
says that you shouldn't develop land and
that kind of a pattern,

742
01:02:24.380 --> 01:02:33.760
that maybe what we need more is a feeling of caring and pride in a land ethic if you will.

743
01:02:34.780 --> 01:02:37.860
Narrator: Developers in Telluride have a
different idea.

744
01:02:37.860 --> 01:02:39.319
Speaker 19: This is the future of

745
01:02:39.319 --> 01:02:43.549
Telluride. This is our new mountain
village project; it's the largest project

746
01:02:43.549 --> 01:02:49.509
in the Rockies. At the present, we're
building what we consider the finest

747
01:02:49.509 --> 01:02:55.660
destination resort in the world. We have
home sites up there that start at around

748
01:02:55.660 --> 01:03:01.939
150,000. That may seem like an extremely
high price but compared to other ski

749
01:03:01.939 --> 01:03:05.239
resorts in Colorado where you can ski
out your front door in the morning and

750
01:03:05.239 --> 01:03:09.709
skiing your back door at night, it's not.
There's similar similar pieces of ground

751
01:03:09.709 --> 01:03:16.699
in Vail start at 750,000 and in Aspen as
as high as two million dollars just for

752
01:03:16.699 --> 01:03:21.079
bare ground. We're so we're starting at 150,000 and

753
01:03:21.079 --> 01:03:27.199
we have a much nicer product we're selling.
The beauty around here is just

754
01:03:27.200 --> 01:03:33.480
unbelievable. I would say that this
project is the future of the Colorado Rockies.

755
01:03:35.540 --> 01:03:38.420
Narrator: We have in the high mountain
valleys of the Rockies, Sierras, and

756
01:03:38.420 --> 01:03:43.670
Cascades pristine natural reservoirs of
water for the arid West.

757
01:03:43.670 --> 01:03:48.890
Without these pure, unsaline waters, the
great agricultural areas of the West

758
01:03:48.890 --> 01:03:54.470
cannot survive. Water from other parts of
the West already carries a heavy load of

759
01:03:54.470 --> 01:03:58.700
salts and pollutants. It is therefore
critical that the degradation of the

760
01:03:58.700 --> 01:04:01.140
remaining pure water be minimized.

761
01:04:01.140 --> 01:04:05.270
Speaker 20: What's essentially happened is that we've sold

762
01:04:05.270 --> 01:04:08.860
out many of our natural resources, our
very important natural resources,

763
01:04:08.860 --> 01:04:15.100
our water quality, our air quality, and we're
selling out many of those other natural

764
01:04:15.109 --> 01:04:20.030
resources now, acid deposition that we
refused to deal with in a sound,

765
01:04:20.030 --> 01:04:25.460
reasonable manner. And I look at what's
happening, and I look at what has

766
01:04:25.460 --> 01:04:29.720
happened and we should be looking at the
long term economics not just the short

767
01:04:29.720 --> 01:04:35.000
term economics. It made me angry when I
was in the legislature, and it makes me

768
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:40.310
furious now. I know what it's like to be
an elected official and I know that we

769
01:04:40.310 --> 01:04:45.950
can and do have the ability to deal with
these issues, but we simply refuse to for

770
01:04:45.950 --> 01:04:50.820
short-term economic gain. Economic gain
that isn't going to get us anywhere.

771
01:04:51.360 --> 01:04:59.260
Speaker 8: We're greedy Americans. We get a deposit of gold or some strategic metal and we

772
01:04:59.270 --> 01:05:04.700
try to mine it out as fast as we can and
to get high profits and pay the

773
01:05:04.700 --> 01:05:09.710
dividends to the stockholders and never
think of future generations. We want to

774
01:05:09.710 --> 01:05:14.540
make it and make it big right now, you know, and I think that's wrong. I think we

775
01:05:14.540 --> 01:05:21.230
should think of future generations and
say let's instead of trying to mine this deposit

776
01:05:21.230 --> 01:05:26.839
right out, let's take it a little easier
and save it maybe for a future

777
01:05:26.839 --> 01:05:32.839
generation or a future war, you know.
I think we're the greediest people on

778
01:05:32.840 --> 01:05:34.160
earth I really do.

779
01:05:34.240 --> 01:05:37.240
Speaker 5: But we have to over
the next few decades, design systems not

780
01:05:37.250 --> 01:05:40.490
just in the high country but in the
world over that are sustainable and that

781
01:05:40.490 --> 01:05:45.260
operate on renewable resources. Humanity
has very nearly used up its one-time

782
01:05:45.260 --> 01:05:50.060
bonanza of non-renewable resources: the
fossil fuels, the concentrated ores and

783
01:05:50.060 --> 01:05:53.960
so on. Some will last longer than others,
some may last for a very long time.

784
01:05:53.960 --> 01:05:57.830
But basically, we are spending our capital now and we better start thinking very hard

785
01:05:57.830 --> 01:06:02.750
about how we are going to preserve the
systems that give us income, because over

786
01:06:02.750 --> 01:06:06.560
the next few decades and certainly over
the next few centuries, humanity is going

787
01:06:06.560 --> 01:06:11.000
to be forced to fall back to living on
income. As any family knows, you can't

788
01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:14.480
live forever on your capital, it's the
income as the basic thing and it's the

789
01:06:14.480 --> 01:06:16.760
income that we're ignoring now to our
peril.

790
01:06:17.360 --> 01:06:18.740
Narrator: So where do we go from here?

791
01:06:18.740 --> 01:06:23.030
As we better understand the importance
of the mountains as the source of our

792
01:06:23.030 --> 01:06:26.720
water, the science of watershed
management clearly must grow in

793
01:06:26.720 --> 01:06:32.150
importance. There are ways to protect the
water, ranging from national legislation

794
01:06:32.150 --> 01:06:36.950
to stop both acid rain and groundwater
contamination to research which will

795
01:06:36.950 --> 01:06:41.240
help us better understand subalpine
valleys, their aquifers, and their

796
01:06:41.240 --> 01:06:46.280
delicate, resilient ecosystems. The
movement for change will start with the

797
01:06:46.280 --> 01:06:51.980
realization that air and water quality
problems know no boundaries. We all live

798
01:06:51.980 --> 01:06:55.560
downwind, and we all live downstream.

799
01:06:57.220 --> 01:06:59.839
Speaker 4: We are breaking it, harmony in the circle of

800
01:06:59.840 --> 01:07:06.120
life. When you lose that, the balance goes
off harmony among the people.

801
01:07:06.120 --> 01:07:12.500
Not with a mountain, not with a mountain, the mountain is forever and this water is

802
01:07:12.500 --> 01:07:20.600
forever in a way. We are the ones that
goes off balance and that's it. Restore yourself.

803
01:07:20.600 --> 01:07:29.640
The Mountain. The holy circle is always there going on and on, but we disturb it by allowing this sense.

804
01:07:30.400 --> 01:07:40.240
[Music]