School: Leland Public School

Introduced By: Kenyon McFarlane and Sarah Jane Crimmins

Grade: 9

A bill to place a ban on metallic sulfide mining throughout the state of Michigan.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

Section 1: This bill shall apply to all persons/companies in the state of Michigan.

Section 2: Persons/companies shall be defined as all businesses, corporations, and people in the state of Michigan who are currently mining sulfide or are planning to.

Section 3: Sulfide shall be defined as any and all sulfide minerals that produce any form of acid mine drainage.

Section 4: Any person/company not in compliance with this bill shall be fined 1,000,000,000 dollars by the state of Michigan, and not allowed to receive any monetary compensation for their retracted goods. They shall also restore the mine’s surrounding environment to the condition it was in directly prior to the mining activities.

Section 5: All fines received from non-compliance with this bill shall be used for environmental restoration efforts within the state of Michigan.

Section 6: This bill shall go into effect six months after passage.

BILL BRIEF

Background/Problem

Currently in the State of Michigan there is an ongoing debate on whether or not to allow major corporations, businesses, and individuals mine sulfide. This is an extremely precarious issue, as many previous mines in other states have destroyed the surrounding environment. There are also many animals surrounding the proposed mine area, and a few are endangered.

Benefits/Advantages/Expected Outcomes

• Valuable fresh water such as the Great Lakes will be protected from contamination.

• Important at-risk wildlife will be protected from hazardous acid-mine drainage.

• Jobs will be preserved, helping sustain Michigan’s economy.

• Recreational land surrounding the area will not be damaged, which is good for revenue from tourism.

• Will help efforts to repopulate the area with coaster-brook trout, which are already diminishing in number.

Drawbacks /Disadvantages

• The proposed mine creates 100 new jobs, which may be beneficial to Michigan’s already-failing economy.

• May discourage other companies to come to Michigan in hopes of mining.

Youth in Government Experience

By: Kenyon McFarlane and Sarah Jane Crimmins

When my dad, Andrew McFarlane, became involved in Save the Wild UP, I quickly became aware of the harmful effects of sulfide mining. But it was only after signing up for Youth in Government that I realized I had found a way to encourage others to join my cause. After introducing my proposed topic to my partner, Sarah Jane Crimmins, she quickly agreed that it would make a strong impression at the April Youth in Government convention.

We gathered information for our bill from a variety of different sources, mostly through informational papers and articles that my dad had collected and were laying around the house. We wanted to be well informed on the topic, for we knew we would have a lot of questions to answer.

Our bill was first opened in committee, where our fellow committee members quickly suspended the rules to ask us questions. The vote was unanimous once we had resolved any queries – it passed with 16 yeas. It then went on to the Senate, because it was a Senate bill. We, however, were in session at the House of Representatives when the bill was opened for discussion. Again, we found ourselves being called upon to answer questions about our bill. Once we were in the Senate, we managed to convince the youth Senators to pass our bill. We were fortunate enough to have the aid of several Ishpeming delegates who helped explain anything that was confusing. The bill passed by a large majority, and it was on to the House of Representatives.

Our bill was finally brought up on the last day of session, because our Speaker of the House set up a docket to attempt to pass all the Senate bills before the conference ended. The initial reaction to the bill was one of confusion – some delegates didn’t understand the large fine associated with disobeying the bill that the Senate had amended. But once again, after we spoke about the bill we managed to change some people’s opinions. The vote in the House of Representatives was closer than the others had been, but the yeas had it.

Our bill was then immediately transferred to the Governor’s Cabinet, and they decided that in order to make an educated decision about our bill they needed to first speak to the authors. However, we had just walked downtown, because it was our lunch break and we were going to find a restaurant. Our advisors, determined to help us get our bill passed, drove around town until they succeeded in locating us. Before we knew it we were back at the Capital building, ready to speak about our bill for the last time. The Cabinet was impressed with our preparation, and they were very willing to listen to what we had to say. The governor asked if anyone had any objections, and there were none. So, our youth governor Dilara Uskup, signed our bill, and it was officially passed.

Out of over 900 bills, our bill ended up being one of only 16 bills that were officially passed during the April Conference. We were very grateful that our bill was passed, but we realized that the journey wasn’t over yet. Because it was passed in the youth government, the bill will now be proposed to the real Michigan legislature, and it has the chance of being signed into law. We are very thankful to organizations such as Save the Wild UP for bringing this serious issue to our attention, and we hope that many more people will do whatever it takes to prevent Michigan from allowing sulfide mining to cause serious damage to our beautiful state.