For Immediate Release, June 30, 2011
Contacts: Jack Parker (Jack Parker and Associates; jprockdoctor@gmail.com)
Laura Gauger (218-724-3004; kettu2010@callta.com)
Attorney General Is Asked to Honor His Pledge
LANSING, Michigan – Michigan’s new Attorney General, Bill Schuette, formerly senior counsel at Warner, Norcross and Judd (the Michigan law firm providing legal counsel to Kennecott Minerals), has announced on his web page his top priorities. Probably the most exciting is his Public Integrity Unit, which is already in business.
The pledge of the Unit is “To uncover and prosecute crimes at all levels of state and local government.”
“Yikes! A dream come true,” said Laura Gauger, a conservationist who recently met with EPA officials to discuss the Eagle Project, a new mine proposed by Kennecott Minerals for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
On June 15th a small group of individuals mailed to Schuette’s office a letter and a document within which was assembled clear evidence that mining experts hired to evaluate the 2006 application for permits to mine at the Kennecott Eagle project agreed that the document was incomplete and inadequate, and constituted endangerment of life, property and environment.
“It should, therefore, have been rejected by the regulating agency, MDEQ. There is no doubt,” said Jack Parker, the mining engineer who authored the report sent to Schuette.
Dr. David Sainsbury, hired by the DEQ to evaluate the application, characterized the analysis of mine stability in the application as “technically antiquated, sloppy and equivalent to high school level work” and “not considered to be defensible.” But, as Parker pointed out, “MDEQ ignored the conclusions and recommendations of their own expert and those of other experts, and accepted the application. They went on to issue all permits demanded by Kennecott, regardless of protests by public and by experts. Kennecott has been conducting construction activities ever since, illegally but with the consent of MDEQ.”
He added, “Federal Agencies claim that they have no jurisdiction over permitting activities because they are covered by state law, mainly Part 632. So they stand by, mute.”
Said Gauger, “MDEQ, the regulating agency, has failed to administer Michigan law and has aided and abetted Kennecott in their activities – therefore the matter goes up to the Attorney General.”
The letter and document ask the AG to investigate and to uncover the criminal activities and prosecute them, beginning with revocation of all permits and agreements. Schuette wrote the pledge that appears on his web page. Citizens are simply asking him to honor it.
To date (June 30th) there has been no response – zero. “Even common courtesy seems to have fallen by the wayside,” said Gauger. “Will some responsible person downstate please nudge the AG’s elbow and show him his pledge? A gentle reminder …”
Said Parker, “We await the Attorney General’s response. Delay means that Kennecott gets the green light to continue showing contempt for the law.”