18 Aug 2023 Jahr - North Carolina mining project hits roadblocks due to community resistance, and arsenic mining byproducts

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"...Mining uses millions of gallons of groundwater per day — water that once pumped, also must be disposed of, along with any contaminants. Piedmont plans to reclaim some of the water to suppress dust and to use in other mining operations. The rest will be discharged into the Long Creek sewer system, operated by Two Rivers Utilities and the City of Gastonia. From there, the wastewater flows into the South Fork of the Catawba River.

But the very geological formations that make Gaston County a hotspot for lithium also make it a hotspot for naturally occurring arsenic, both in the rock and in the groundwater. Piedmont will be responsible for ensuring no contaminated groundwater escapes its basins and enters creeks or private drinking water wells, especially during flooding.

“We anticipate there will be arsenic in the water,” Parker told the commission, “but we could use various methods to treat it, depending on the concentration. If we find arsenic, we’ll return the water cleaner than when we found it.”

"...even in the name of clean transportation, extractive industries like lithium mining still pose environmental risks. In Gaston County, arsenic naturally occurs in the rock, and residents are concerned that the cancer-causing chemical will be released during Piedmont’s mining operations. Those same operations would release greenhouse gases — 330,000 tons per year, or equivalent to emissions from 66,000 gas-fueled passenger cars — state records show.

And despite its grand economic promises — $3.9 billion in cumulative economic output, 428 mining-related jobs, and $45 million to local and state tax coffers — Piedmont Lithium has few friends in Gaston County.

Mining companies often chip away at public opposition by dividing and conquering a community. They win over some landowners and elected officials with pure marketing, and still others with money: contributing to election campaigns and buying property from people who are land rich but cash poor.

In Gaston County, some residents near the mine have sold their land, but far more people vehemently oppose the project. They fear their drinking water wells will become polluted, run dry, or both. They are concerned about the noise, light, blasting, dust, the permanent corruption of the landscape, the risk of fire, especially if lithium hydroxide comes into contact with water."
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