Mining Byproduct

Simplot's Smokey Canyon Mine in southern Idaho the company reported that selenium (a mining byproduct) would be safe to dump into the river but after a small period of time the locals started to notice deformities in the local animals. The first thing they noticed was a two-headed trout and then they started to notice other trout with two heads, or facial, fin, and egg deformities. The metal can also affect human health with symptoms such as hair and fingernail loss. But usually affects aquatic egg bearing animals more than anything else, a fact revealed in the early 1980's when excessive selenium from agricultural runoff resulted in fatal deformities in waterfowl at the Kesterson Reservoir in California included missing eyes and feet, deformed beaks, legs, and wings and protruding brains.

I believe this could impact us by killing off a certain species in an area and having a population die off or if their predators die off they could rapidly multiply.