Private Mining Interests Try to Put a Price on Michigan’s Waterways
by Dick Huey

Amid the ancient forests and rocky outcroppings of the Upper Peninsula’s Yellow Dog Plains, the beautiful Salmon Trout River cuts a serpentine path as it alternates between flat water and cascading rapids on its way to the world’s premiere fresh water body—Lake Superior.

This river, set in pristine surroundings, is far removed from the hustle and bustle of Detroit and Lansing, but has nonetheless become a symbol of the best and worst of Michigan. The river is a testament to a state fiercely proud of its natural assets but increasingly neglectful of them in the face of budget crises and political combativeness.

While citizens discuss the economic future of the U.P. in terms of a clean environment, recreation and tourism, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has revealed that its priorities lie elsewhere. The MDEQ is bumbling its way through a faulty review of a permit application to blast an acid-generating mine right beneath one of Lake Superior’s premiere tributaries, the Salmon Trout River. Despite an outcry from concerned citizens, the review of this proposed mine has taken place with the apparent blessing of a so-called ‘environmental Governor,’ who has consistently ducked and dodged the issue while the future of the Great Lakes hangs in the balance.

Read the rest of Not For Sale in Critical Moment magazine.