Sulfide Mining and the Soul of Michigan

by: Dave Dempsey

Anyone who grows up in Michigan knows that some Great Lakes State experiences are sacred – sunsets and wild storms over Lake Michigan, standing beneath the few remaining 300-year-old white pines in the Keweenaw, the feeling of release when you realize you’ve arrived “up north.” And so much more.

Even in the teeth of the economic windstorm raking Michigan, these things are not worth sacrificing. Future generations deserve to enjoy them unimpaired. And so it is that the state must soon make a choice between protecting the majesty and promise of the Yellow Dog Plains and unspoiled streams, northwest of Marquette, or ransom them for a scattering of short-term jobs and the likelihood of long-term costs to Michigan taxpayers.

The battle is over sulfide mining – an inherently destructive technique of extracting (in this case) a deposit of nickel and copper from the ground. Unfortunately, this deposit, sought by Kennecott Corporation, underlies the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River, believed to be among the last spawning streams on the south shore of Lake Superior for the native coaster brook trout. Sulfide mining is a process that releases toxic sulfuric acid into nearby water. It’s like putting a chemical factory in one of the wildest places in Michigan – and then counting on good-faith promises not to leave an expensive mess behind for taxpayers to pay for. But acid mine drainage has already polluted more than 12,000 miles of rivers and streams and over 180,000 acres of lakes and impoundments in the U.S.

When sulfide mining was proposed in the north country of Wisconsin a few years back, the same concerns about the long-term environmental risks of sulfide mining were heard. There, legislators enacted a law with a simple, easily defensible standard – sulfide mining would be allowed provided that its proponents could demonstrate the safety of the method. There’s been no new sulfide mining in Wisconsin. But Michigan has taken a different approach, enacting a law that assumes that sulfide mining can be made safe – when it is inherently unsafe with current technology.

Michigan’s historic economic difficulties can be addressed one of two ways. First, mortgage the future by consuming natural resources for short-term gain – the same process that wrecked the state for several generations after the initial timber and mining boom. Or, second, build a base of jobs and economic prosperity – and quality of life – around the very assets that make Michigan a special place: its waters, its forests, its lands and the workers and tourists these attract.

It’s not trout alone that are at stake – or even the Yellow Dog Plains. It’s the very definition of Michigan itself, its future, and its soul.

(Reprinted with permission from author)