Probably a quick GQ question but as it’s about a show thought I’d put it here. Never saw the show before this weekend but it’s about some guys tearing Alaska to find gold. Some crazy guys. The question is about the tearing up part. Do they have fix what they tear up after or do they just leave things all ripped up when they are done?
There is very little public land in Alaska and this is far beyond recreational mining. I would suspect that for dredging operations for a televised program, they’re putting things back in order before leaving, but I don’t know for sure.
I have been watching this show and it is pretty manufactured. I’m not sure how far into it you are, but… well, I enjoy watching it.
I was told that at Prudhoe when production comes to an end however many decades in the future there is a commitment to remove all the facilities and even remove the gravel used to construct all the pads and roads, including the Haul Road, back to the river banks and quarries from which it came.
I’m not sure what requirements exist for commercial mining operations but hopefully they liase with similar regulatory mindsets.
I’d be willing to place a money bet that it doesn’t happen, and that ARCO, et al, will make a token effort, then tie things up in court to avoid having to do an extremely costly remediation. Hell, the Exxon Valdez spill was in the courts for what. . .25 years?
Hadn’t looked before but I did just now find this, a GAO report on that post production remediation plan. I’m not going to read it off a cellphone but I will revisit it later and share anything found pertinent to this thread.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:GqbtJIgrp10J:www.gao.gov/new.items/d02357.pdf+prudhoe+remove+facilities+after+production+ends&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgGWDSovylWRSQXDEeJtWL9R8VxsXD8yrP0gOCQe-Jud-1PDjQPRibPm1ggU6IlZuRIFbPUSwbLpcTaH8Qj1lL8E7tzndkKcnihPe5w7G5jUasysrkM8GKr5Ydck-tKv8Yn6iFU&sig=AHIEtbQsTI_v3EMQZ9EBSvX1-mywas4r7A