CR 595 + Mine Haul Routes

Status: The Marquette County Road Commission, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, continues to appeal the US District Court’s denial of their lawsuit against the EPA. The lawsuit is funded by undisclosed contributions to “Stand UP”, a 501c4 dark money group. The Marquette County Road Commission is suing the Environmental Protection Agency following their failed effort to push through the “County Road 595” (CR 595), a mine haul route thinly disguised as a public infrastructure plan. The CR 595 route would cut through the wild, undeveloped heart of Marquette County, in order to connect Eagle Mine with the Eagle’s Humboldt Mill. Eagle Mine LLC is owned by Lundin Mining. CR 595’s first incarnation was the “Woodland Road” and “South Road”, promoted by Kennecott / Rio Tinto while Eagle Mine was still in the permitting phase. Clearly designed to start at Eagle Mine and end at the Humboldt Mill, the road would serve a single foreign corporation. It was not designed to benefit the public.

From the beginning, the environmentally destructive County Road 595 project has been strongly opposed by coalition of concerned citizens, local residents, tribal members, watersheds, and regional environmental organizations. The proposed CR 595 route would have crossed 22 rivers and streams, including the Dead River and Yellow Dog River Watersheds, the Middle Branch of the Escanaba River, Mulligan Creek headwaters, Voelker Creek, and Wildcat Canyon Creek, destroying approximately 25 acres of wetlands, directly impacting 122 wetland complexes, and bisecting a major wildlife corridor, fragmenting both habitat and hydrology.

Controversial History of the CR 595 Proposal – A Mining Haul Road

Marquette County Road Commission Document Archives

 

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