One week after a controversial decision by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to permit a sulfide mine in the central Upper Peninsula, the National Wildlife Federation, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Huron Mountain Club and Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve today filed a contested case petition and a lawsuit against the MDEQ as the first step in a legal challenge to halt the mine.
“The opponents of the mine have presented MDEQ with over 1000 pages of unequivocal evidence that Kennecott’s proposed sulfide mine does not meet the state’s legal requirements and would result in profound pollution, impairment, and destruction of air, water and other natural resources,” Michelle Halley, attorney for NWF and the other co-petitioners explained. “The MDEQ has issued permits that are based upon defective,
inadequate and incomplete applications and are therefore illegal,” she added.
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I have seen that kenecott has tried to lease state land, which if I understand, they get a decision on that on the 10th of January. If true, I have been looking at map search, and have seen where they have made roads, and getting ready to surface mine. If this is state land, they should have some kind of lease for state land. It just seems as they are jumping the gun without all the proper permits to invade our rights to enjoy the land we have a right to enjoy.