July 20th is Lake Superior Day!  This years theme is “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” to symbolize clean energy sources like wind power.  Last year communities participated in Lake Superior Day with dragon boat races, beach clean ups, musical concerts, library displays, church services, and signed proclamations.  Visit www.superiorforum.info or call (715)682.1489 for more information.

Save the Wild UP suggests celebrating Lake Superior Day by making a kite to help educate the public about the dangers of uranium and metallic sulfide mining and the need to protect our Great Lake Superior!

lakesuperiordayflyerside1-general_2008

By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Munising Bureau

POSTED: July 1, 2008

MARQUETTE – Parties involved in an ongoing contested case hearing over permits issued to the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company said the proceedings will likely continue for at least two more weeks.

Administrative Law Judge Richard Patterson is presiding over the hearing, which began on April 28 and was expected to close by Monday.

The hearing is considering a challenge to a DEQ decision last year to grant Kennecott permits for its nickel and copper mine planned for the Yellow Dog Plains.

The National Wildlife Federation, Huron Mountain Club, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community are challenging the DEQ issuance of those mining and groundwater permits.

The hearing will probably conclude by mid-month, according to Kennecott officials.

Then, Patterson is expected to make his recommendation to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Chester, and the parties involved will have an opportunity to provide feedback before Chester makes a final decision in the case.

This week, scheduled testimony will be from witnesses discussing Kennecott’s groundwater discharge permit.

Eric Chatterson, a DEQ groundwater modeling expert, is expected to discuss the groundwater modeling research conducted to assess the projected impacts of the water discharge to the environment.

Bill Creal, a DEQ Permits Section chief, will primarily focus on the section’s process, expertise and capabilities relative to the groundwater discharge permit processing.

Sarah LaSage, of the DEQ’s Surface Water Quality Division, will testify on the DEQ’s review of the groundwater discharge approach as it relates to ensuring the protection of area surface water bodies.

A recess is scheduled to begin Thursday and run through next week.

The hearing process is expected to wrap up the following week with several days of rebuttal witnesses for the petitioners. This will be followed by closing arguments by all parties, which will be in writing.

These “Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law” submitted to Patterson will outline the legal basis for the arguments presented by each side.

After Patterson receives those last briefings, he is expected to make a written recommendation to Chester, who will then make the final DEQ decision.

All parties have a right to appeal the decision to the Ingham County Circuit Court.

Kennecott is not allowed to begin work on its mine until the contested case hearing has been decided and the company receives a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Company officials said they remain hopeful they will prevail, the permit will be granted and they will be able to begin work on the project this year.

Opponents said they hope the outcome of the contested case hearing or the federal permitting process will result in their favor, blocking the mine project.

A 5-mile walk from Brighton Beach to Leif Erikson Park with rally and music at Leif Erikson

10:00 a.m.  Gather at Brighton Beach-63rd Ave. & Congdon Blvd., just past Lester River

11:00 a.m. Walk Started

1:30 p.m. Walk finishes at Leif Erikson Park

2:00 p.m. Rally & Music at Leif Erikson Park

Speakers

Rick Defore, Dultuh American Indian Commission Wis. State Rep. Frank Boyle

Invited: Red Cliff Environmental Program

Former Mayor Herb Bergson

Mike Stitch, 1990 contract barrel retriever

MUSIC

Singer/Songwriters Rachel Kilgour and David Rovics

We want clean water: get the barrels out

Barrels of Military Toxic Waste in Lake Superior Near Duluth

An estimated 1,457 barrels of “classified” Honeywell Corporation’s military waste were secretly dumped by the Army Corps of Engineers into Lake Superior between 1957 and 1962.  Even after official searches, 75% of them have never been found.  The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has won its 3rd federal grant to try to locate and investigate the approximately 16 separate dumps that cover 75 sqr. miles.  Some of the 55-gallon drums are within one mile of the drinking water intake for the City of Duluth.  Comprehensive sediment testing near these drums, to determine if their toxic contents have leaked, has never been done.  The drums contain PCBs, lead, cadmium, barium, chromium and most likely radioactive wastes.  The government has recovered only nine barrels, and it has found only seven of at least 16 dump sites.  The Red Cliff band’s upcoming investigation of the drums-dumped between 1957 and 1962 and holding some 415 tones of waste-will determine if they pose a threat to human health and the ecosystem.  please join the Lake Superior Day Walk for the Lake, to celebrate the Red Cliff success and to demand official recognition of the potential threat posed by the waste.

When:  July 24, 2008   4:30pm-7:30pm

Where: American Legion Post 43  5554 River Rd., Stephenson

Cost: Adults $7     Children $5

The Front 40 is a grassroots environmental organization working to keep the Menominee River clean for us and generations to come.  Join us for supper and a chance to talk about plans to save the Menominee River from a metallic mineral mine potentially being developed on the shores of the Menominee River in Lake Township.

Lyle Espenscheid, retired professor, UW Marquette, and chosen 11 times as “Professor of the Year,” will be on hand to talk about how metallic sulfide mining in Wisconsin along the Lac du Flambeau River has effectively destroyed that river environment.  He will compare how those efforts could affect our beloved Menominee River.

Protect Our Waters…  Stop the mine!   For more information, visit:  www.menomineeriver.com

LANSING (AP) — Key lawmakers reached a deal Monday to strengthen the state’s regulation of large-scale water withdrawals, paving the way for Michigan to approve a regional agreement preventing Great Lakes water from being sent elsewhere.

The legislation may reach Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s desk by the end of the week, with votes coming as early as today.

Five states have ratified the Great Lakes Basin Compact, and Ohio’s governor will sign it soon. Then Michigan and Pennsylvania would be the only states that have not approved it. Congress also must sign off.

The compact itself has wide support in Michigan because many fear that states in dry regions could eye the Great Lakes for their water needs. But the House and Senate have delayed sending the compact to Granholm while wrangling over the accompanying water use bills.

Negotiators on Monday settled monthslong differences over when to require state permits for the biggest water withdrawals and those affecting trout streams, and whether to let regulators prevent withdrawals that would not be in the public interest. Legislators have spent more than two years working on water rules.

Senate Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Chairwoman Patricia Birkholz, R-Saugatuck, said some farms, canneries, baby food makers and other large water users want to expand in the state.

‘‘This legislation will give them certainty as to if and how they can grow and where they can grow,’’ she said.

Some states in the region have approved the compact but passed ‘‘skeletal’’ accompanying water laws, leading to lengthy and expensive court fights, Birkholz said.

A major piece of the bills would be a new point-and-click computer tool measuring the ecological effects of water withdrawals. Golf courses, wineries, ski resorts, dairy farmers and others could use the technology to find out if their water usage would harm the environment.

‘‘Economic development and job creation and protecting Michigan’s natural resources are not mutually exclusive goals,’’ said House Great Lakes and Environment Chairwoman Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor.

Michigan law now requires state permits if a company wants to use more than 5 million gallons a day from the Great Lakes or 2 million gallons daily from inland waters. The legislation would make it 2 million gallons a day from all waters and 1 million gallons in ‘‘sensitive’’ regions where less water is available.

The bills also would make new or expanded water bottling plants get permits if they use more than 200,000 gallons a day, a drop from the current threshold of 250,000 gallons.

State approval for new or expanded water withdrawals also would be needed if fish populations such as trout in cold-water streams are reduced by 3 percent or more.

The Democratic-led House had wanted a tighter threshold for rivers and streams but lost out during negotiations. The Republican-led Senate gave in a bit by agreeing to tougher restrictions in areas with less water.

Environmentalists were disappointed the compromise does not instruct regulators to issue a permit only after concluding the project would not violate the public interest. The Senate opposed the provision.

‘‘That is the major downside of the deal,’’ said Cyndi Roper, state director for Clean Water Action.

Roper said the public trust language could have been used by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to distinguish between businesses that use water to make their products and bottled-water companies.

‘‘The idea that we are just supposed to treat those water miners the same way we treat farmers or manufacturers or municipal water systems is absurd,’’ Roper said.

In a key concession to the industry, the compact provides that water packaged in containers of 5.7 gallons or less and shipped outside the basin is not a diversion of Great Lakes water.

EPA outlines plan for Gilt Edge cleanup

By Journal staff

The federal caretakers of the former Gilt Edge Mine south of Deadwood are seeking public comment on a $58 million plan to treat water and remove or seal pollution sources at the defunct open-pit gold mine.

The Gilt Edge Mine was part of a mining district that bore gold, copper and tungsten as far back as 1876. The area is off U.S. Highway 385 near Galena, at the headwaters of cold-water fisheries and municipal water supplies, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Brohm Mining Co. began operating a large open-pit mine at the historical Gilt Edge property in 1986. Three open pits were dug, with gold-bearing rock heaped in large mounds treated with diluted cyanide that dissolved the gold. The solution was collected to retrieve the gold, refreshed with cyanide and recycled over the mound to repeat the process. A large waste-rock dump also was created.

Rock at the 258-acre site contains sulfides that, when exposed to air and water from rain and snow, becomes acidic. There were historical mine wastes at the site, and EPA says contaminates existed before open-pit mining began in the 1980s.

The runoff unleashes naturally existing toxics, including arsenic, nitrates and sulfates, that contaminate Strawberry and Bear Butte creeks.

While controlled, the site presents no immediate threat to human health, the EPA said. If uncontrolled, the large volumes of contaminated waters could threaten the well-water supplies of downstream users, including the city of Sturgis.

Although some cleanup was done, Brohm went out of business and was unable to continue site controls. That left pits filled with 150 million gallons of acidic, heavy-metal-laden water and tons of exposed acidic-generating waste rock.

In 2000, the site was proposed for the Superfund National Priorities List, and the EPA developed plans for cleanup and control of contaminants. Measures included covering mountains of waste with synthetic tarps and clean soil to restrict and air and water reaching the acidic rock. Uncontaminated water in the area was diverted from the mine, and contaminated water from the pit and surrounding Ruby Gulch drainage is being cleaned and neutralized before being released to nearby streams.

Surface ponds and historical underground mine workings create a complex plumbing system, making cleanup work slow and tedious. In 2007, EPA estimated toxic water in the holding pits had risen to 180 million gallons.

The EPA is now examining a variety of options that would treat millions of gallons of water each year at the site.

The primary culprit for pollution is the waste-rock pile at the heap pads. EPA officials propose backfilling the pits with the waste rock and covering the trouble-making material. The EPA would like to spend more than $58 million to collect and treat polluted water, upgrade a water-treatment plant on site and deal with the site’s pollution sources.

The EPA also would like to limit public access to the site, allowing only non-motorized use of mine area roads, and no housing or other development that would disturb the surface.

Because of the public comment period and state and federal agency reviews, EPA officials guess the next phase of the Gilt Edge cleanup won’t begin until 2010.

To comment

Anyone wishing to comment on the next phase of the Gilt Edge Mine cleanup can do so until Monday, June 23.

Documents outlining the proposed work are at the Hearst Library, 315 Main St., Lead, or online at epa.gov/region8/superfund/sd/giltedge

For more information, contact Jennifer Chergo at the EPA, 303-312-6601; 800-227-8917 ext. 3126601 or e-mail chergo.jennifer@epa.gov.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-mineralsurvey,0,963730.story
chicagotribune.com

Mining company surveys Marquette County by air
Associated Press
10:49 AM CDT, June 17, 2008
MARQUETTE, Mich.