WLUC TV6 – Kennecott needs permit before construction can begin
Mining Journal – EPA role limited in mine project
Author Archives: Save the Wild UP
Sudbury Health Risks Report Review Commissioned by Steelworkers
A report prepared by nationally known pollution watchdog, Environmental Defence Canada, says that the Sudbury Soil Study Human Health Risk Assessment Report (HHRA) “cannot demonstrate that there is no harm occurring, it can only estimate level of risk. The assessors have inappropriately decided what that acceptable level of risk should be. This is a decision the community should make.”
The review of the HHRA was commissioned by Mine Mill 598 and Local 6500 of the Steelworkers this summer, and released this morning.
In response to the report, a number of community residents and organizations have banded together to form the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soil Study. The Community Committee is urging the Ontario Ministries of Environment and of Labour to step up and assume their responsibility for the health of Sudburians.
The Environmental Defence report sets out a number of serious findings:
- Lead contamination is above safe levels in Greater Sudbury, and children may be harmed at these levels;
- Air levels of nickel are higher than recommended exposure in three communities;
- There are concerns that inhaled arsenic and specific types of ingested arsenic may put Sudbury residents at risk;
- Higher levels of lead, arsenic and nickel in Sudbury-grown foods are a concern for those eating them;
- The assessment assumes it is acceptable to expose workers to greater level of risks, who receive greater doses of nickel and other contaminants during their employment.
The Committee was represented at today’s media event by Rick Grylls, President Local 598, John Fera, President Local 6500 Steelworkers, Monique Beaudoin, Centre de Sante Communautaire, and Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch. Many other Committee members were also present.
“We want to see the Government ensure that the public decides what level of risk it can accept, what will be done to clean-up affected properties, and what will be done to treat those whose health is at risk”, said John Fera. “The process to date has been dominated by the companies who are responsible for the mess.”
Said Brennain Lloyd: “We need the Ontario Government to help the public formulate a response to the Soil Study. The Ecological Risk Assessment has yet to be released, and we don’t want another green-wash. The public needs and deserves real involvement in reviewing these results, and the government needs to be ready to take real action at the end of the process”.
“It is not acceptable to exclude the extra health risks for the 25-35,000 current and past workers in Sudbury,” said Rick Grylls. “The community has to decide the acceptable levels of risk and what should be done to deal with the problems.”
Monique Beaudoin, Health Promoter for the Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury says, “the francophone community and the community in general have the right to information in their language and to the tools and resources that will allow them to participate effectively in the Ecological Risk Assessment. The environmental health of our community is at risk and the public has a right to be fully informed and to determine the level of risk it is willing to live with”.
Copies of the Environmental Defence Report are available from http://www.toxicnation.ca/toxicnation-studies.
Environmental Defence is a national non-profit organization that seeks to connect Canadians with key environmental and pollution issues. Its Toxic Nation campaign undertakes studies and advocacy for change. The HHRA report was reviewed by Dr. Kapil Khatter.
Dr. Khatter is a family physician and an environment and health expert who has led chemical-related policy work at Environmental Defence (www.environmentaldefence.ca). He has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies and has sat on a number of working groups tasked with providing expert advice to Health Canada and Environment Canada. Dr. Khatter is also a board member of Health Care Without Harm and the President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
For more information, contact:
Environmental Defence – Aaron Freeman, Policy Director 613-564-0007
CAW Local 598 – Rick Grylls, President, 705-673-3661
Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury – Monique Beaudoin, Health Promoter, 705-855-8084 ext 211
Northwatch – Brennain Lloyd, 705-497-0373
DNR Open House and Compartment Review for Salmon Trout River
This compartment review includes cutting the state lands around the Salmon Trout River. Anyone looking at an ariel of the YD Plains will see that there is only a little bit of older growth forest left – right along the river! We need to impress upon them that wildlife corridors are absolutely required – especially along this important waterway. If you can come, please do!
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Gwinn Forest Management Unit, will host an informal open house on October 23rd to provide information and receive public comment on forest management treatments proposed for 2010 in the Gwinn Forest Management Unit. You or your organization has expressed an interest in state forest management, or your organization has been identified by the DNR as possibly having an interest in state forest management. Therefore, we wish to invite you to this open house. The open house will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Sands Township Hall.
Each year, DNR personnel inventory and evaluate one-tenth of the state forest. Information gathered includes the health, quality and quantity of all vegetation; wildlife and fisheries habitat and needs; archeological sites; minerals; recreational use; wildfire potential and social factors, including proximity to roads and neighborhoods; and use on adjacent lands, public and private. Proposed treatments, which may include timber harvesting, replanting and other management activities, then are designed to ensure the sustainability of the resources and ecosystems.
The open house is an opportunity for the public to review proposed treatments and to provide input toward final decisions on those treatments. It also provides the public an opportunity to talk with foresters and biologists about issues of interest. Maps and information regarding the proposed treatments will be available at the open house, and can be accessed at www.michigan.gov/dnr under the Forests, Land & Water section.
Each management unit is divided into smaller units or compartments to facilitate better administration of the resources. Compartments under review this year are in Chocolay, Ely, Ewing, Forsyth, Michigamme, Republic, Richmond, Skandia, Tilden, Turin and Wells Township in Marquette County. Also in AuTrain Township in Alger County.
The formal compartment review to decide on prescriptions for these areas is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Friday November 7, 2008 at Northern Michigan University – University Center – Superior Room. Persons with disabilities needing accommodations for these meetings should contact Bill Brondyke at 906-346-9201.
Yellow Dog Benefit Concert
Join the Yellow Dog on Saturday October, 18th, 5:00 pm at the Peter White Public Library, community room.
Music starts at 5:30.
A donation of $7.00 per person $15.00 per family at the door is requested.
CONTESTED CASE BRIEF AND CLOSING ARGUMENT
Please click the following link to read the closing argument on the Contested Case regarding the proposed Eagle Project.
Flambeau Debate: No Response from Jon Cherry
An August 16, 2008 letter to the editor, in Marquette’s daily newspaper, proposed a debate between Jon Cherry (Eagle Project Manager) and Laura Furtman (co-author, along with Roscoe Churchill, of the Buzzards Have Landed! The Real Story of the Flambeau Mine). In an August letter to the editor, Laura Furtman responded to the proposal request, challenging Mr. Cherry to an open debate regarding Kennecott’s mining activities at its Flambeau Mine in Ladysmith, Wisconsin. The Flambeau Mine was an open-pit copper mine that consisted of a copper sulfide ore body within 140 feet of the Flambeau River. The facility operated from 1993 and closed early in 1997.
Kennecott Eagle Minerals continues to claim that their Flambeau Mine was an environmentally successful sulfide mine. According to Kennecott’s website “. . . the Flambeau Mine remained in compliance with state permit standards for the 15 years that have included operations and the ten years since the mine’s closure – no permit violations ever occurred.”
Salt Lake City Mayor Tells Kennecott to Leave Public Space Alone
No trespassing, Kennecott: Mayor tells company to stay out of public’s open space
By Jeremiah Stettler
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Launched:10/12/2008 12:53:08 AM MDT
Kennecott’s plans to probe for minerals beneath hundreds of acres of Salt Lake County-owned open space have hit rock-hard resistance from a potent political foe: Peter Corroon.
The Democratic mayor has denied the mining company access to county lands for prospecting, threatened Kennecott with trespassing if it tries to touch down a helicopter on the property and petitioned the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for mineral rights.
The measures, Corroon insists, are to defend the largest swath of publicly owned wilderness on the county’s west side – otherwise known as Rose Canyon Ranch and Yellow Fork Park.
“Salt Lake County purchased the property as open space for our citizens to use for hiking, biking and riding horses,” Corroon said. “Really, how could I say to Kennecott, ‘Yes, go ahead and explore this property for mining purposes.’ ”
Relations have soured between the parties in recent months, highlighted, in part, by Kennecott’s announcement in mid-September that it would pursue mining claims not only in Rose Canyon but also in nearby Yellow Fork Canyon.
While Kennecott says its hunt for Yellow Fork minerals isn’t retaliatory, a company spokesman said last month that the county’s resistance in Rose Canyon – and its interest in buying up mineral rights to prevent prospecting – “forces our hand.”
So while Kennecott appeals to the BLM for access to its Rose Canyon mining claims (the bureau can grant that admittance without the property owner’s permission), the copper giant is preparing to send surveyors into 80 acres of Yellow Fork to search for profitable ore within the federal government’s mineral holdings.
“We have a business we are trying to conduct,” Kennecott spokesman Louie Cononelos said, noting the proximity of Yellow Fork to the mineral-rich Bingham Canyon Mine. “We are proceeding along those lines to do it.”
Australia: Union Begins Strike Against Rio Tinto
Rio’s Iron Ore Unit Faces Further Industrial Action
By Angela Macdonald-Smith
Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third- largest mining company, faces the prospect of further industrial action by train drivers at its iron ore operations in Western Australia after the first strike today in more than 16 years.
Today’s 12-hour strike, in which 11 out of 12 drivers took part, was “only the commencement of the campaign,” Gary Wood, secretary of the Western Australian division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union, said today. Deliveries from Rio’s mines weren’t affected today by the strike, said Gervase Greene, a spokesman for the company’s iron ore unit.
EPA Open House for Kennecott Application October 22
CHICAGO (Oct. 9, 2008) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold an open house on October 22 to answer questions about the federal role in regulating the proposed mine and the underground injection control permit application submitted by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company. The open house will be held at the Holiday Inn, 1951 U.S. Highway 41, West Marquette, Mich. There will be three sessions from 9 to 11 a.m., 1 to 3 p.m., and 6 to 9 p.m.
Kennecott proposes to dispose of treated wastewater as part of a nickel and copper sulfide mining operation within the Yellow Dog Plains of northwestern Marquette County. EPA notified the company that any underground disposal system at the mining site must comply with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s federal Underground Injection Control program before construction and operation. The Safe Drinking Water Act is intended to protect underground sources of drinking water.
The UIC permitting process for the underground disposal system is EPA’s only direct regulatory role in the Eagle mine project. EPA is conducting a technical evaluation of the permit application and supporting documents and expects to issue a draft decision before the end of the year. EPA will accept public comments and hold a public hearing when the draft decision is announced.
A copy of the permit application and more information about the Eagle mine project and the underground injection control program is available at: http://www.epa.gov/region5/water/uic/kennecott/index.htm.
The EPA Public Process Diagram:
US Fish and Wildlife Requests EPA Delay on Kennecott Mine
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has requested the EPA to determine whether habitat for the endangered Kirtland warbler and threatened Canada lynx occurs in areas that could directly or indirectly be affected by Kennecott’s Eagle Project.
According to the USFWS, “Kirtland’s warblers utilize young, dense stands of jack pine that are interspersed with treeless openings,” and requested the EPA to conduct a survey of male Kirtland’s warblers, in late Spring, 2009, if potential habitat is located in the area.
The USFWS also stated, “the Kirtland’s warbler, an endangered species, was detected within three miles of the project site during the 2006 and 2008 Kirtland’s warbler census” and, “the Canada lynx’s range includes the proposed project site…therefore, we believe, an assessment for potential affects to Lynx is prudent.”
Although key indicators suggest the area as suitable habitat for both species and were acknowledged in Kennecott’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the company did not consider the project as potentially affecting Kirtland warbler or Canadian lynx habitat. According to the DEQ, Kennecott conducted only 7 months of the legally-required 2-year flora and fauna study.
A USFWS decision on whether Kennecott’s proposed project would affect native Coaster Brook Trout is expected by December 15, 2008. Because the Coaster is not yet considered federally threatened or endangered, the USFWS did not consider the EPA to have responsibility at this time.
Located above Kennecott’s ore body, the Salmon Trout River houses the last remaining naturally reproducing population of the potamodromous Coaster Brook Trout on the southern shore of Lake Superior. Contamination or a possible collapse of the river, due to mining activities, would likely decimate this rare population.
Joe Maki, geologist with the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Office of Geological Survey has admitted, in a recent contested case hearing, that Kennecott does not have a contingency plan for a collapse of the Salmon Trout River. Maki was the coordinator for the Mine Review Team that conducted the DEQ’s review and recommended approval of Kennecott’s mine application.