Mining Expansion Via Barges On Maury Island
Glacier Northwest plans mainly on using barges, supported and supplemented by a new dock system - which they have yet to gain permission to construct (Preserve Our Islands, April 26) - to transport the mined aggregate off the island. The company asserts that their reasons for using barge transportation are based on environmental and economic principles, including avoiding the costs and environmental effects of constructing main roads on which the aggregate would be transported. The economic viability of this strategy is clear; one barge of aggregate is equal to approximately 115 trucks (Ron Summers, April 25), but both the use of the barge and construction of a new dock have other consequences as well (see below). Glacier Northwest is hoping to mine and remove 85 million tons of sand and gravel from the island using the barges, which could result in the loss of 8% of the island's land mass, leading to serious effects on the islands near shore habitats, water supply, and the chemical composition of the soil.
Read more about this topic: South Maury Island Environmental Issues
Famous quotes containing the words mining, expansion, barges and/or island:
“In strict science, all persons underlie the same condition of an infinite remoteness. Shall we fear to cool our love by mining for the metaphysical foundation of this elysian temple? Shall I not be as real as the things I see? If I am, I shall not fear to know them for what they are.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)