Jan. 9, 2007
DEQ’s decision dismisses alarming dangers from risky U.P. sulfide mine

Gov. Jennifer Granholm brushed aside glaring shortcomings in a Kennecott Minerals Co. plan to drill in an Upper Peninsula sulfide rock formation when her regulators gave preliminary approval to the plan today.

The nickel mine, which would generate hundreds of thousands of tons of acid-leaching waste rock from underneath the Yellow Dog Plains near Marquette, would be the only mine of its type in Michigan. Several other potential U.P mine sites are pending, as companies wait to see how stringently state officials apply environmental safeguards to Kennecott.

“This sets the bar for what may well be a rush to extract minerals from across the Upper Peninsula, so it’s not just another permit application,” said Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. “We’re appalled that Governor Granholm’s people appear – at least preliminarily – unwilling to set that bar at a level which protects water resources and the tourism-related jobs in the U.P.”

Environmental groups who were instrumental in forging new regulations regarding the risky sulfide mining in 2006 expressed disappointment that those rules are being interpreted loosely by the Granholm administration.

“The legislation requires a company to demonstrate that it can undertake this inherently dangerous type of mining safely,” said James Clift of the Michigan Environmental Council. “Kennecott’s permit application falls short of meeting that test.”

The decision also is incongruous with Granholm’s vision of a new future for Michigan’s economy.

“The Governor’s rhetoric is visionary, but this decision is regressive,” said Brian Beauchamp of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “If this is the ‘Next Michigan’ of which she preaches, it looks an awful lot like the old Michigan – a handful of temporary jobs from a 19th Century industry at the expense of natural resources that support 21st Century growth and economics.”

A series of public hearings is likely prior to a final decision, providing an opportunity for Granholm’s regulators to order Kennecott back to the drawing board.

The mine would be drilled underneath the sensitive headwaters of the Salmon-Trout River, home to the last known naturally reproducing strain of coaster brook trout on Lake Superior’s south shore.

It would require the removal of rock that leaches toxic heavy metals and dangerous sulfuric acid when exposed to the air and moisture at the surface. Should Kennecott’s containment or treatment systems prove inadequate, the toxics could poison the water for miles around.

On Monday, grassroots organizers from the Upper Peninsula presented Gov. Granholm’s office with the signatures of 10,000 Michigan residents opposed to the mine. That’s a startling level of opposition from a region where mining has a respected and storied history.

“People here aren’t opposed to mining, they accept mining. What they’re opposed to is reckless exploitation of the land’s most sensitive areas for a few dozen temporary jobs,” said Marvin Roberson, who lives in the U.P. and works for the Sierra Club’s Michigan Chapter. “Ten years from now the jobs will be gone and the profits will be in London, which is headquarters to Kennecott’s parent company. We’ll be left with whatever legacy remains.”