A recent letter to the editor in the Marquette Mining Journal from Laura Furtman (co-author of “The Buzzards Have Landed”) challenges Kennecott’s Jon Cherry to a public debate on the issue of the Flambeau mine in Wisconsin.
To the editor:
As the co-author of “The Buzzards Have Landed: The Real Story of the Flambeau Mine,” I hereby challenge Kennecott’s Jon Cherry to a public debate.
I traveled 250 miles to speak at the Protect the Earth Summit in Marquette (Aug. 2-3) because current data does not support Kennecott’s version of what’s happening at the Flambeau Mine site.
I wish Mr. Cherry had attended my workshop to educate himself about the ongoing water pollution problems at this reclaimed mine site. Instead, he continues to spew out the public relations rhetoric that prompted my visit.
Here’s just one example of what I mean …: He claims that the Flambeau Mine is an example of how mining can be accomplished “with the environment protected.” Yet the company’s quarterly data, on file with the Wisconsin DNR and reported in my book, shows that heavy metal pollution in the groundwater at the Flambeau Mine site far exceeds what their fancy computer modeling predicted would happen.
The most dramatic example is the heavy metal manganese: the established drinking water standard for manganese is 50 parts per billion (ppb); Kennecott predicted that manganese levels at the Flambeau Mine site would rise to 520 ppb (due to acid mine drainage); but in reality, manganese levels measured in a monitoring well within the backfilled pit have reached 42,000 ppb (80 times worse than predicted). This is Kennecott’s own data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Furthermore, Kennecott predicted that the manganese levels will remain elevated for over 4,000 years. This is of serious concern from a health perspective.
As a pharmacist, I searched the medical literature and discovered that excess manganese in drinking water can cause nerve damage similar to that seen in Parkinson’s disease. One such report where people were poisoned cited a manganese level of 14,000 ppb in their drinking water.
Knowing that levels of 42,000 ppb have been reported at Flambeau makes Mr. Cherry’s comment about environmental protection worthy of debate at the very least.
The people of Michigan deserve to get the … facts about the water pollution at Wisconsin’s reclaimed Flambeau Mine site. I invite Mr. Cherry to join me in a vigorous and open debate.
Laura Furtman
Webster, Wis.
To encourage participation in the debate, you may contact Jon Cherry at jon.cherry@riotinto.com or (906) 486-1257.