Just compare the slick\u00a0CSCC\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0with the grassroots pluck of\u00a0Crowsnest Headwaters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rinehart\u2019s company, which has made effusive promises of jobs and prosperity (\u201cVote YES for the future\u201d), has even offered to drive residents to the polls on Nov. 25.<\/p>\n And that\u00a0wielding of influence in an Alberta election<\/a>\u00a0occupied the minds of many folks at the Polish Hall.<\/p>\n Terry Ostrom, a M\u00e9tis and former public works supervisor, was one of them. He didn\u2019t think the Grassy Mountain project was a sound idea for either water, people or the future.<\/p>\n He talked about the growing scarcity of water in the bone-dry region where wells are going dry all the time. He detailed how many of his neighbors \u201cwere hauling water.\u201d<\/p>\n He said everyone knew that B.C.\u2019s Elk Valley coal mines dominated the news and not in a good way. One day they were being\u00a0fined $16 million<\/a>\u00a0for poisoning water with selenium and another day for\u00a0unauthorized waste disposal<\/a>. In northern B.C. Conuma Resources behaved no differently: It just\u00a0got fined<\/a>\u00a0$45,000 for fouling waterways on 400 separate occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey take it with a grain of salt,\u201d said Ostrom. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m concerned about.\u201d<\/p>\n Susan Wagner, a 72-year-old retiree from Saskatchewan, moved to the Pass (Hillcrest Mines) in 2004. \u201cIf there had been a coal mine here, I would not have come,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She added that she was particularly worried about the impact of coal dust on human health. She said particulate matter from the site would travel 70 km. It can infiltrate the lungs and the bloodstream causing all manner of disease.<\/p>\n Rinehart\u2019s company has promised a dust-free mine, but Wagner sums up the prevailing view of foes of the project. \u201cI think they are selling us a bill of goods to make a profit.\u201d<\/p>\n A new U.S. study found that trains carrying loads of coal also leave a trail of dust and illness behind them. Residents living near the tracks have\u00a0higher rates<\/a>\u00a0of asthma, heart disease, hospitalization and death \u2014 all due to particulate matter.<\/p>\n The train loading site for Rinehart\u2019s Grassy Mountain project would be located just 200 yards from the hospital in Blairmore just east of Coleman. \u201cThere is no dust-free mining,\u201d noted Alan Brice, a well-known fly fishing guide and millwright in the Pass,\u00a0in a film<\/a>.<\/p>\n And then came the subject of the referendum. Why should the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass be holding a referendum on a project that will be built in another municipal district and whose impacts could affect 200,000 water drinkers downstream?<\/p>\n And why, asked Ostrom and Wagner, would the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass whose council renewed a water contract with Rinehart\u2019s company in 2021 after the project was rejected by regulators, limit the referendum to only full-time residents? \u201cIt makes no sense,\u201d said Ostrom. \u201cIf you are paying full taxes, you should be able to speak to the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n The star of the night was Corb Lund.<\/p>\n He hails from a ranching family that moved to southern Alberta from Utah in the 1800s. And he\u2019s been opposed to coal mining on the eastern slopes ever since Premier Jason Kenney secretly upturned the province\u2019s restrictive Coal Policy and invited Australian developers to benefit from Alberta\u2019s one-per-cent coal royalties and flexible reclamation rules.<\/p>\nVoices of resistance<\/h3>\n
Dust-free coal mining?<\/h3>\n
Cowboy protest singer<\/h3>\n
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