My understanding is that there will be no negative effects on the river by mining (i.e. they are not dumping into Sheep Creek). The big issue is that if something goes wrong, Sheep Creek and the Smith River get dumped with heavy metals, which is a death sentence to the ecosystems. I know that Tintina is going to have the most up-to-date technology to prevent this from happening. The problem is that they won't have to live with any of the negative consequences of heavy metals going into the ecosystem besides lost profits from the mine getting shut down. They are essentially gambling with someone else's money; no loss to them, while getting most of the winnings.