The Rest of the Story about Kennecott’s Flambeau Mine and their request to the Wisconsin DNR for Certificate of Completion

Kennecott (AKA Flambeau Mining Company or FMC) has applied to the Wisconsin DNR for a Certificate of Completion (COC) for its reclamation activities at the Flambeau Mine site. What it boils down to is that FMC wants to get back its $11 million reclamation bond, based on the company’s claim that the site has been successfully reclaimed (If a COC is awarded, the State of Wisconsin can return up to 80% of the bond – the remaining 20% would be held for an additional 20 years).

This is not just a Wisconsin issue. The people in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Minnesota will be affected by the decision as well. You see, Kennecott is trying to gain approval to construct mines in both MI and MN at the present time and has been using the Flambeau Mine as its calling card, telling everyone what a wonderful job the company did at Ladysmith.

If Kennecott succeeds in getting a COC for the Flambeau Mine, the company WILL use this to bludgeon down Wisconsin’s mining moratorium law and claim the company has done what no one else has ever managed to do – successfully reclaim a metallic sulfide mine. The only problem is that the Flambeau Mine site has NOT been successfully reclaimed.

This is a warning to Michigan. There are piles of reports that show the Flambeau mine has polluted. But, for some reason there have been no violations issued to FMC (actual citations by the WI government punishing FMC for polluting). This could be due to lack of enforcement of WI laws. It could also be that since FMC has been willing and able to clean-up all its messes that have been detected so far, the WI government is willing to let it “slide”.

A permit to mine is a permit to pollute. If the WI DNR issues this Certificate of Completion, FMC is no longer required to monitor the site as often. This might lead to pollution that would be undetected until the problem is so big, no amount of remediation will fix it. And if 80% of the bonds have been released, there would be no money to finance a clean-up effort, no matter how trivial.

In light of the budget cuts that the Michigan DEQ is facing, one can only guess that enforcement of Michigan laws at the proposed Eagle Project would suffer. Lack of enforcement could equal substantial and irreversible destruction of the area surrounding the Eagle project.

Additional information is listed below:

1. The groundwater within the back-filled mine pit is grossly polluted with heavy metals, and the groundwater is seeping through fractured bedrock directly into the Flambeau River. Not only did the company underestimate the amount of groundwater pollution that would occur within the back-filled mine pit, but the rate at which it would seep into the river. Take the example of manganese! Prior to mining, levels ranging from 30-290 mcg/l were measured in “deep Precambrian wells” at the mine site. Since the drinking water standard is 50 mcg/l, that meant some wells already exceeded the safety limit even before Kennecott crushed up the bedrock and pushed it into the unlined pit. Kennecott predicted at the time of the Master Hearing that levels would increase to 522 mcg/l within the back-filled pit. But guess what really happened! Levels of 42,000 mcg/l were measured in April 2005 in one of the wells (80 times higher than predicted) and will undoubtedly remain grossly elevated for centuries (levels bounced around in 2006, decreasing to 22,000 in January, increasing to 36,000 in July and decreasing to 23,000 in October 2006). By the way, high manganese intake from drinking water can cause nerve problems similar to those seen in Parkinson’s disease.

2. Sediment, crayfish and walleye specimens collected in the Flambeau River downstream from the mine site already show higher levels of heavy metals than upstream samples, even though the mine has been closed for only ten years.

3. It appears that FMC may be positioning itself to try to avoid any discussion of groundwater and surface water issues at the contested hearing – and instead limit the scope of the hearing to above-the-ground issues (i.e., plant species, hiking trails, bird surveys). As Sandy Lyon put it, “That’s a ‘half COC’d plan,’ and if the DNR goes along with it and allows Kennecott to declare ”Mission Accomplished,’ the hearing will be nothing but a scam/sham.”

4. FMC’s annual reclamation reports make no mention of the various endangered species found at the site prior to mine construction. Were those species impacted by the mine?

5. The company has failed to monitor a naturally-occurring wetland located directly between the backfilled mine pit and Flambeau River for adverse impacts.

6. And the list goes on and on…