Water erosion increases the threat for those nearest the tailings. Rainwater filters through the mounds, picking up heavy metals, cyanide, and acids used in mining. This toxic water is called acid mine drainage and collects in orange pools.
“AMD is very easy to see,” says Larkin, “But so far it hasn’t come into the main city’s water supply, so no harm yet done to humans, unless they are drinking directly from the streams. What is very worrying is how much of this might be running down into the main aquifer below the city and how much damage it is doing to the vast network of water on which so much of the city and surrounding towns rely.”
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