Here is a story that hit my e-mail inbox sent by somebody from somewhere. The publisher is AAP NewsWire. The publication is AAP Australian Sport. The author is John Coomber, Senior Sports Writer. I confess I do not know the places or the people of whom he writes. But the story is interesting and there is in it my favorite sting-in-the-scopion’s-tail: for who is to say that sport is less “dangerous” than mining? Here is the story as written by John Coomber:

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A road that winds so much and goes up and down so many steep grades could have be built for one reason only:  to provide access to mines.  And indeed that is the case, although today the road provides access to beautiful scenery, quaint towns, and expensive properties.  I refer to California Route 299.  It erratically traverses three mountain passes in north west California linking the coast and the inland Central Valley by a route no sane engineer would choose if efficiency were the first consideration. 

I add Route 299 to Colorado Route 141 as being amongst the most spectacular and beautiful roads to travel.  Why fly to Australia or New Zealand for scenery when these routes are right at hand?  I selected this route by chance.  I had spent the Easter weekend in Newport, Oregon marvelling at how different the United States is to Canada: TV shows from CNN asking what Jesus would do about global warming (I did not watch the show, so I do not know what the final verdict is); talk-show hosts making comments about sports teams using words I have never heard before and the meaning of which I have no clue; and nice warm California weather made hotter by a non-functioning car air conditioner. 

I am tempted to pontificate about the sustainability of a region after the cessation of mining when I traverse routes like 299 and 141.  Here is tangible, living proof that we can mine and then turn the area into a high-priced, livable environment.  I refrain from saying the obvious, which is probably too much, for there surely are downsides to my admiration for these areas and I do not want to rouse sleeping emotions.  All I ask is that you go take a look and then get back to us with your counter arguments.

In South Africa at the start of my consulting career, I was called in to limit erosion from an old sandy pile of tailings close to the city. Vegetation would not grow in the acid materials that were cemented by negative pore pressures to a hard crust. We read all the literature of the seventies but found no answer. The gut feel solution was to cut a series of benches, one-foot high by one-foot wide, with vertical and slightly inward-sloping near-horizontal surfaces. Rain fell on the near-horizontal benches, ponded, and seeped into the tailings. Nothing ran off and erosion was controlled.

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