DEQ schedules public hearing for proposed CR 595

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m

Country Village Convention Center in Ishpeming.

For talking points, go to   http://standfortheland.com/

DEQ officials announced a public hearing to discuss a proposed new road in Marquette County. The Marquette County Road Commission has submitted to the DEQ an application for a series of permits to create Marquette County Road 595, a proposed 21-mile road to connect US-41 with County Road AAA. Read entire press release…120131CountyRoad595(1)-3 Continue reading

Wave

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WAVE is a new citizen-based group seeking to preserve Michigan’s pristine waters.

It is a grassroots coalition of individuals and representatives of environmental, health, and citizen groups around the Great Lakes Region. Its mission is to protect water resources as part of a sustainable future for our region.

Learn more about WAVE

WAVE

Lawsuit Revived Against Mining Giant Rio Tinto for War Crimes in Papua New Guinea

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A U.S. federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit accusing mining giant Rio Tinto of committing genocide and war crimes in Papua New Guinea, where it once ran one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines. In their lawsuit, current and former residents of the island of Bougainville claimed that Rio Tinto decimated the island and forced native workers to live in “slave like” conditions.

READ MORE: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11270&l=1

 

Witness: A personal account of local efforts to stop the Kennecott Eagle Project mine, by Jon Magnuson

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Jogging down the stairs at Heathrow Airport to the underground train running to London, I carry in my overnight luggage a small container of wild rice, formal letters from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and a document signed by a hundred faith leaders. My twenty-eight-year-old traveling companion, a local organic farmer, writer and activist, carries in his duffle bag—along with a newly purchased bargain-basement suit—a bottle of homemade maple syrup and seven packets of background information on a controversial proposed sulfide mining project near our homes in Northern Michigan.
It’s April 2008 and we travel with support from a number of Michigan-based nonprofit groups, arriving in England a couple of days early for the annual general meeting of one of the world’s largest multinational mining corporations. For twenty years Rio Tinto has been listed as a top choice for investors on the London Stock Exchange. The company also has been documented as being responsible for some of the worst environmental and human rights violations that exist in the modern mining industry. We’re here because they’ll soon be coming, dependent on final government permits, to our neighborhood.

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Utah pollution fighters sue Kennecott

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By Judy Fahys

The Salt Lake Tribune  http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile/53145614-90/kennecott-pollution-utah-groups.html.csp

First published Dec 19 2011 09:32AM

Environmental groups made good Monday on a promise to sue Kennecott Utah Copper over air pollution.

Utah Moms for Clean Air, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, the Sierra Club of Utah and WildEarth Guardians are demanding that the mining giant scale back its operations to pre-2007 levels and pay penalties of about $68 million for violating the Clean Air Act for nearly five years.

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Citizen Comment: CR 595 is nothing but a Kennecott Haul Road

Letter to the Mining Journal, 2-10-2012

To the Journal editor:

Marquette County Road 595 is being built because of the mine at Eagle Rock. If there were no mine, there would be no road. It is a road for the mine, a haul road.

Kennecott needs to step up to the plate and do what is right, and it is the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s job to make them follow the law. Continue reading

Wisconsin: Committee to vote on mining bill today

By The Associated Press/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 24, 2012 7:00 a.m.

Madison - The Assembly jobs committee is set to approve a Republican bill that would streamline Wisconsin’s iron mining permit process.

The committee is set to vote Tuesday. Approval would clear the way for a full vote in the Assembly. The measure already is on the full Assembly’s Thursday calendar. Continue reading

Wisconsin Events calling for mining activists!

Wednesday, January 25th, 5:00p, – 7:00pm
BURY THE MINING BILL PROTEST RALLY: at Lady Forward, to of State Street / Capitol Square, Madison, WI — Protest AB-426 aka “The Mining Bill,” and Wetlands Deregulation Bill AB-463. These Bills will deregulate environmental protections and give immunity to mining operations. The bills are also in direct violation of the treaty rights of the tribes whose resources they affect. The bills are themselves illegal.

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Wisconsin: “Fast track” Mining Bill has its problems

Wisconsin DNR: Mining bill could cost agency millions

Details of the proposed Mining Bill: AB426 Summary CleanWisconsin 2011(1)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted Jan 09, 2012 @ 08:00 AM

Last update Jan 09, 2012 @ 08:51 AM

MADISON, Wis. — A Republican bill designed to kick-start an iron mine in far northwestern Wisconsin could mean additional costs for the state Department of Natural Resources ranging from $550,000 to $3.8 million per year, according to a DNR analysis.

The 183-page bill would make a number of broad changes, including placing time limits on the DNR to approve or deny an iron-mine application. It also caps at $1.1 million the amount that a mining company could be asked to reimburse the DNR for costs associated with the application approval process.

Those factors could lead to higher expenses and lower revenue, the agency found. Continue reading

Hurley, Wisconsin: Hearing today on Mining Bill

Today: Hearing Held on Assembly Mining Bill in Hurley
The Assembly Jobs Committee just announced it will hold an official public hearing on the mining bill, AB 426,  Wednesday, January 11th in Hurley at the Hurley Inn beginning at 10:00 AM.
This will be an important opportunity for residents who live near the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine to voice their opposition to this disastrous legislation that would roll back commonsense environmental protections, silence the voice of the public, and eliminate accountability for mining corporations. Learn more about the bill here. Continue reading

Flambeau Mine: URGENT APPEAL to WISCONSIN MINING ACTIVISTS

Hello!  

Roscoe and Evelyn Churchill were right. They said from the very beginning that the Flambeau Mine would pollute the water over there, and it has.Now we have a chance to do something about it, and WRPC is asking for your help. Please see the attached letter for details and submit your written comments to the Wisconsin DNR by February 20, 2012.

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Common Dreams: Utah Doctors Join “Occupy” Movement

Published on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by CommonDreams.org  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/27-3

Utah Doctors Join “Occupy” Movement

Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke–strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia. Continue reading