Whelan's are one of the few companies in the world experienced at arctic freighting and maintaining equipment in temperatures exceeding 70 degrees below zero across vast arctic frontiers where no one has ever driven equipment before.

Whelan's do level 1 through 3 environmental assessments, remedial, and reclamation work and permitting in mining, urban, and agricultural development. The company has reclaimed abandon mine sites, worked on various hazardous waste spill sites, and designed facilities for over 4000 cow dairies. The company is also in charge of engineering work on the largest air sparging clean up system west of the Mississippi.

Mining is essential for protecting the environment and feeding the world as there is nothing in the civilized world that is not made from or dependent upon materials produced from mining. The mining industry is the most environmentally regulated industry in the U.S. and has spent more money on protecting the environments than any other industry. Less than 3/10 of 1 percent of the land in the U.S. has been disturbed by mining since 1776. More than 1/3 of this land has already been reclaimed by the mining companies and most of the areas presently being mined will be reclaimed upon abandonment. Mining is a very expensive and risky business, and It normally takes several hundred millions of dollars in investment before an ounce of gold can be produced. To justify such risks the U.S. operates under a law pasted in 1872 which has been extensively updated and proven in the courts over the years to be extremely well conceived and written to protect the environment and investments under changing technologies and times -- this 1872 mining law must be preserved to insure that the U.S. industry can raise the funds necessary to operate environmentally sound mines. One only has to look at the many environmental catastrophes seen in other parts of the world operating under strict governmental controls to truly appreciate the positive effects that the 1872 mining law has on the environment.

Protecting our environment from increasing urban development and population growth is a constant challenge for the mining industry. More than 3 percent of the U.S. land surface is covered with asphalt and nearly 60 percent is plowed for farming. 2,750 acres of pavement is laid each day in the U.S., which is enough to make a bicycle path 7 feet wide from coast to coast. U.S. citizens consume 18 million tons of mined material each day to produce such things as 640 acres of carpeting, 9.7 million square feet of plate glass for windows, 4 million erasers, 3.6 million light bulbs, 21 million photographs, 550,000 pounds of toothpaste, and an endless number of every day goods.