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• 1 2016-04-20T14:20:07-07:00 Connections to Other Environmental Justice Events 28 The connection to Love Canal, Reserve Mining in Silver Bay, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and Altgeld Gardens. plain 2016-05-05T05:42:59-07:00

   

  Modern mining is the "removal of minerals from the earth, economically and with minimum damage to the environment." However with "minimum damages," times after times, countries are seeking for more supplies of minerals and materials to benefit their economic and defense needs. These minerals and materials can be non-fuel minerals such as stones or other resources that don't require further processing or metallic minerals that need to be combined with other materials known as ores. So many operations increasing mining, it is impacting the air, land, and water. Then with its implications, it is forcing many people to move and or causing them to be displaced. Also, with increased industrial's usage of the minerals and materials as an energy source, it is affecting the Greenhouse Effect.
  
  Climate refugees’ campsite is related to the Altgeld Gardens because of the squalid and unsanitary environment. This could be leading up to challenges of providing safe drinking water and food. With that said, campsites can be very crowded with little "room to sleep, bathe, or relax." Furthermore, with runoffs and floods, the campsite will mainly be wet and cold. Due to it, the campgrounds are full of spreadable health issues such as cholera, respiratory illness, skin diseases, malaria, and jaundice. 
  
  The chemical waste from the Love Canal will evaporates and produces chemical odor resulting in polluted gas in the atmosphere to the residents. The sea level rises forced families to relocate to bigger cities in Bangladesh. However,  the bigger cities are already polluted from factories. Pollution and chemical wastes are risk factors for harming the environment and the people’s health. Asthma is one significant health concerns among climate refugees.
  
  Then contamination of water from microbeads and sea level rises of salinity water result in the lack of food production and safe drinking water. Once microbeads enters the rivers, many fish will become contaminated because the fish cannot digest the plastic and it is unsafe to eat the fishes once it is contaminated. Microbeads are dangerous because they have the ability to absorb toxic chemical in the water. Salinity water makes soil quality insecure, and the freshwater animals will become endangered to local water. Both of the contamination challenged the government to find a solution that will filter out the microbeads and salt so the people and the animal can have potable water. 
   
• 1 2016-04-25T20:14:31-07:00 Acid Mine Drainage: The Plague to the Environment 19 image_header 2016-05-02T13:10:02-07:00

  AMD Pollutants:  Heavy Metals and pH

  Water riddled with AMD typically has high concentrations of heavy metals and H+ ions, which causes the pH to decrease dramatically and take on an orange hue as the metals react to form iron oxide and hydroxide precipitates.  These precipitates, called ocher, form a coating along the bottom of river and stream beds. 

  Effects on Human Health

  For people's health to be affected by acid mine drainage, people have to be exposed to the pollutants either from the water or the contaminated organisms that live in or around it.  To date, there is a minuscule amount of data that shows how much humans are affected by AMD.  However, there is a substantial amount of information on many of the components and pollutants in AMD that are hazardous.

  Heavy metals have detrimental side effects on human health due to their acute long-term toxicity.  These metals, once present, are difficult to remove.  Therefore, they can remain in natural ecosystems for extended periods of time.  Additionally, when these metals are ingested, they are capable of wreaking havoc on the body.  The metals accumulate in different systems that disrupt metabolic functions. As these metabolic processes are disrupted organs’ vital functions are impaired, and nutritional minerals are moved from their desired locations.   A list of some heavy metals with their side effects is outlined below 

  
  The ochre produced by lowered pH, kills off many of the macroinvertebrates that feed along the riverbed which fish feed upon. Thus, ochre causes the extended food chain to be disrupted, not only for humans but the ecosystems surrounding the contaminated site as well.  

  Effects on Aquatic Life

  Fish, in particular, can be severely affected by AMD.  Fish populations can be exposed directly to heavy metals and H+ ions through their gills and causes acute toxicity that impairs their respiration.   The H+ ions (pH) alter their gill membranes or the mucus around them and causes hypoxia, ultimately leading to death. The ochre that coats the streambeds destroys habitat makes it difficult for fish to find clean gravel to use for spawning and decreases the food supply.  Additionally, when the pH of the contaminated water reaches levels as low as 2-4.5,it leads to the extinction of most aquatic organisms, not just fish.  Many fish populations can survive in contaminated waters with pHs as low as 5, but once pH levels hit 4.5 90% of the fish population is exterminated.
  
  If the fish are not killed directly by the heavy metal toxins and H+, then they may suffer from nonlethal abnormalities like stunted growth, reduced reproduction, deformities, and lesions.  

  Effects on Plant Life

  Plants are directly dependent on balanced pH for macro and micronutrients from the soil.  Keep elements for successful plant growth are tied up in the ground when the pH is acidic (~pH 1-4) like calcium, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The microorganisms that decompose organic matter are relatively sedentary at these pH levels thus impeding the better use of nutrients, root development, and drought tolerance.   Very few plant species can survive at such highly acidic concentrations; it’s limited almost exclusively to types of algae and mosses.  Heavy metals or certain combinations of heavy metals can lead to cellular damage and disrupt critical processes needed for plant growth.  Some side effects include reduced chlorophyll production, seed germination, protein, chlorophyll and enzymes production.