The Case of the Missing Deed Read Online Free Page A

will produce a great deal of waste rock,” Cheng said. “All mining does. But this will not be a problem because we will store the rock in a temporary, sustainable, state-of-the-art containment system during the mining phase, and then bury it all back inside the mine once the tantalum has been removed.”
    “How is a huge, ugly rock pile a ‘sustainable’ whosit whatsit containment system?” Muriel asked, but Cheng had moved on to the next slide. It showed a chunk of silver-blue rock, light glinting off its cut surfaces.
    “You will no doubt be relieved to know that tantalum is inert–”
    “What’s that mean?” someone called out.
    “It means that it doesn’t break down easily,” Cheng explained. “So there will be no toxic emissions into the land, air, or water.”
    Click. A page titled “Impacts on Fish and Wildlife” came up. “No bird colonies or salmon stocks will be endangered by our operations,” Cheng said. “And if they are, we have solutions. We’ll relocate the birds to other nesting trees. We’ll stock other streams with salmon fry. Everything will balance out.”
    “That’s ridiculous!” yelled Chad, a young man who’d recently moved to the island and was an avid birdwatcher.
    “You can’t just move birds’ nests – they’ll never survive!” said his wife, Rachel.
    “And dumping salmon fry into other streams doesn’t work,” Leon shouted. “They’ll die!”
    Cheng didn’t respond. Wiping his brow, he clicked the mouse. A list of phrases appeared: Appropriate wastemanagement. Fish and wildlife protected. No effects on land, air, or water. Next to each one was a big red check mark.
    “To conclude, our study found that, for all these reasons, the tantalum mine is an environmentally sound project and can go ahead.”
    Quickly, Dr. Wayne Cheng sat down.
    The room filled with shouts.
    “What about the noise and pollution from the trucks?”
    “And the dust?”
    “And the traffic? I’d call those environmental impacts. You didn’t talk about any of them!”
    “No effect on birds? Where’s the proof?” Rachel said.
    Chad nodded. “Yeah, let’s see that environmental report.”
    Mark Saxby strolled back to center stage. “That report is being printed as we speak,” he said smoothly, “so unfortunately, we don’t have copies on hand today. But if you pop into the office in a few days, we’ll be glad to give you one. Besides, not wasting paper is part of Tantalus Mining’s commitment to being environmentally responsible.”
    There were loud guffaws at that.
    “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve presented our economic and environmental reports. That leaves only the third requirement, to hold public consultation. And that’s what we’ve just finished doing. As soon as we can write up a report on today’s open house, we will submit all three reports to the government, and we will have met all the requirements for the permit.”
    “You call this a public consultation?” Hugh shouted. “It’s a whitewash!”
    “Yeah, you didn’t consult. You just told us what you were going to do!” Kevin added.
    Saxby went on as if no one had spoken. “We expect to receive the permit shortly, in a week or ten days. Once the permit is issued, you must decide immediately whether to sell or not. And I can tell you that the prices we will be offering then will not be as high as they are right now. So sell now and get all the value you can out of your property!”
    The meeting ended. Chairs scraped, and the swell of conversation filled the room. Neighbors gathered in small groups, debating the pros and cons of the mine, of selling or holding on to their properties, of the future of Otter Island.
    Grandma stood up, clutching the back of a chair. “Take me home,” she said.
    At the word
home
, her voice broke. Eve took one arm, Aunt Meg the other, and surrounded by the rest of the family, they headed out of the hall.

~THREE~

A PASSION FOR PESTO
    lex was awakened the next morning