Here is a link to an “amusing” article comparing communities attitudes to local mines. In one case, Libby, Montana, everybody is suing everybody over an old asbestos mine. In the other case, Eden, Vermont, the local residents don’t believe a word of it.
In short, these two cases open up the age-old questions of local support, self-interest, and the real impact of mines on communities. Or is it all a case of the power and presence of smart lawyers who manage to create a storm of concern to support expensive class-action law suites? In which case the lawyers of Vermont must get failing grades. Or do the residents get high grades for common sense?
At the end of the day it really does not matter, for the kind-hearted, powerless taxpayer pays for it all through the good graces of the EPA and Superfund. We all get lumbered with the cost of cleaning up the mess left behind by a few greedy individuals who are probably living happily in Canada or Mexico, and a few incompetent state regulators who still get their salary and pensions anyway.
My personal view: we should put the regulators on trial. It is their lazy incompetence that allows the ordinariness of human nature to prevail to pollute.
There is a diffrence between those 2 asbestos mines. Libby is an amosite asbestos mine and Eden is a chrysotile mine. Amosite is the killer. Many died at Libby, Eden’s death toll can be counted on one hand right now.