Readers skimming through the Jan. 26, 2001, Oregonian might have noticed the headline flashing at them from the Metro Environmental Page: “Mine wastes pose threat to waterways.”

The “acid mine drainage” in question was found leaking from the Red Boy Mine, a defunct 116-year-old gold mine located five miles southeast of Granite. This mine yielded more than $1 million in gold before it was tapped out in 1916. Now, the state has labeled the mine an environmental hazard to nearby sensitive fish species.

Nearly 22 months later, those same “mine wastes” continue to pose a threat to Clear Creek and neighboring tributaries, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. John Dadoly, representing DEQ, on Oct. 15 asked the North Fork John Day Watershed Council for the council’s endorsement to help him secure a $160,000 Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board grant. He hopes to use the grant to start a clean-up of the Red Boy waste rock.

Miner Merle Brown was not convinced of the need to spend state money on this privately owned, inactive mine. He argued to the watershed council, “There’s never been a problem with that mine … for the fish.”

Instead, drought and other factors have caused recent fish counts to reflect a downturn, he argued. Unfortunately, the council cut off dialogue during this stage of the meeting, and some of us who could not stay until the very end missed the rest of the conversation. (The council tabled its decision on Dadoly’s request for endorsement.)

Off the cuff, I would make the following observation. “Ground wastes,” rather than “mine wastes,” might be a better way to depict the problem at Red Boy. The Oregonian article made this distinction (albeit not until the 13th paragraph): “Miners didn’t introduce the arsenic or the other chemical compounds and heavy metals. They occur naturally but are released by ground water activated by tunneling and soil disturbance,” the Oregonian reported. Dadoly is the official quoted.

So, the mine is a conduit for, not a source of, these “pollutants.” It’s a bit misleading to call these naturally occurring chemical compounds and heavy metals “mine wastes.” That implies humans carted them in to aid with excavations. In fact, the Good Lord produced these compounds and metals. The Good Lord could have chosen, through geologic processes, to release these compounds into the creek, regardless of whether anyone mined there or not. Of course, we will never know because mining did happen.

What thousands of urbanites and suburbanites knew after reading the headline about the Red Boy in the Oregonian is that those big, bad miners left a manmade fish-killer that will cost thousands of dollars to clean up. The message: Mining is bad, don’t allow it, miners kill fish.

In my mind, mining is good. As Miles Potter wrote in “Oregon’s Golden Years,” “Gold from Western mines helped to win the Civil War.” And that’s just scratching the surface of mining’s benefits to society.

Instead of spending money “cleaning up” the Red Boy, maybe we should celebrate the site as a unique cultural artifact and an important link to our past. As changing ocean conditions continue to bring record returns of fish to our rivers, we can celebrate the fish and thank the Lord for providing such a bountiful resource. Then, before we forget, we can take a moment to thank the miners who transform the earth’s ores into thousands of refined commodities that allow us to enjoy a tremendous quality of life.

As for the iron and arsenic at the Red Boy, talk to God about those. He created them. I assume He’s a little bit wiser than we are about why he placed them so close to a creek.

Anyone with comments about “Editor’s Opinion” can contact David Carkhuff by calling 575-0710 or by e-mail at editor@bluemountaineagle.com.