I took a drive to a beautiful hidden place that not a lot of people know about on my way home from the cat shelter on Sunday. I learned about it years ago from my ex-boyfriend, who knew about it because his grandparents lived near it years ago. I want you to look at the first three pictures with a panorama in mind, with the first one the right side of it, the second one the middle of it, and the third one the left side of it. The last picture is of an island that I think has a bunch of birds on it but my eyes aren’t that good.
Now I want you to imagine the high point in the first picture is a wooded dune, and that just behind that wooded dune is the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. Which it is.
What you are looking at used to be tall dunes. One company has an exclusive contract to MINE THE SAND, our beautiful sugar sand, and sell it to manufacturers for molds. Every time a 5-year contract expires for this company, somehow or another it gets renewed. This has been going on for as long as I’ve been alive. This is a massive lake that used to be a dune. What may be even more distressing is that on the other side of the road I’m standing on is another lake just like it, that has continued to grow as they continue to mine.
The processes they use on the sand has contaminated the water supply in the area. Residents must drink bottled water. A few years back, they planned on building a giant pipeline to spew their tainted water directly into Lake MI. We were able to convince the head of the MI EPA at that time, Steven Chester, to deny them.
Learn more about sand mining here.
I’d never considered sand mining before and its harmful effects. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
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Thank you very much. It’s just like every other resource on the planet that humans think is in endless supply and to be exploited for personal gain. What makes it worse in this case is that studies have shown the inland sand is just as adequate for the mold-making but costs a little more to prepare.
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Sadly, It always comes back to profit.
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When I go to West Virginia to visit Jennifer’s in-laws I see mountains stripped mined….it’s terrible. Yea this is awful.
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Just as horrific, even more because it doesn’t leave anything good behind with the mountains 😦 No matter that the world is on fire, the rapists/looters/exploiters of our Mother Earth continue without ceasing.
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And it will continue as long as there is a dollar to be made. When they cannot replace what they take…don’t do it.
In logging now…many people now at least plant a couple of trees to everyone they take. At least try to give back.
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Gosh, all these hidden environmental problems that are going on behind our backs across the globe is just awful. Thanks for telling us about this one.
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Suzanne, thank you. There is an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and futility to stopping even one of these crimes.
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That’s true. It feels like the bad guys are winning right now!
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Argh! It makes me so angry that money rules, even to the detriment of the future of the planet. Argh!
And again — Argh!
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Is there no end to man’s greed? *Sigh*
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It is distressful; humankind seems to have endless ways to systematically destroy Nature. And they were going to dump stuff right into lake Michigan, too? I am so glad you did something about it, and prevented that additional disaster.
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Well-said, Irene. We started up a campaign of letter-writing, local paper editorials, emails and calls to Steven Chester and elected reps. A lot of times just bringing this kind of evil to light will make it flee. It worked this time for the pipeline anyway.
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That gives me hope
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Sand molds can be formed to create castings with fine exterior detail, inner cores, and other shapes. Nearly any metal alloy can be sand cast.
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sand mining is ruthless, we have it too and they prefer out of the way super scenic locations where the greenies don’t have easy access …
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😦 grrrrrrrrrrr
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likewise!
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