DNR Open House and Compartment Review for Salmon Trout River

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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.

Flambeau Debate: No Response from Jon Cherry

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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.”

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Salt Lake City Mayor Tells Kennecott to Leave Public Space Alone

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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.”

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Australia: Union Begins Strike Against Rio Tinto

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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.

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EPA Open House for Kennecott Application October 22

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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

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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.

Kennecott Lacks State, Federal Permits to Proceed With Mine Plan

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Kennecott Minerals Co. currently lacks all major state and federal permits required in order to open and operate its proposed Eagle Project metallic sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains, in Marquette County.

Recently, the company purchased the site of the old Humboldt Mill, in Humboldt Township, that was used to crush ore from Callahan Mining Company’s Ropes Gold Mine decades ago.

Although Kennecott has yet to submit a permit for its processing complex, Eagle Project manager, Jon Cherry, claimed, at an October 6 meeting, that the mill will be operational by 2010.

Local Save the Wild UP Director, Kristi Mills, said “For Kennecott to announce that it is moving forward with its Eagle Project and Humboldt mill plan is grossly pre-mature when you consider the big picture. They have neither the legal permits nor public consent to boast their achievements.”

According to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) deputy director Jim Sygo, at Humboldt, “There are Waters of the State issues, and the site is a facility under [Part 632, the new metallic mining law], which will generate significant issues to permit this site.”

In a July, 2008 letter, Sygo acknowledged “that the reopening of the Humboldt processing facility would require a separate permit.”

Sygo also acknowledged that Kennecott “would have to apply for an amendment of the Mining Permit for construction of a new haul road and would likely need permits under Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams and Part 303, Wetlands Protection…as well.”

Regarding the company’s plans to power the mine, Sygo said that Kennecott “would have to apply for an amendment to its Part 632 Mining Permit before beginning activities to extend electrical service from CR 550 to the Eagle Project mine site.”

A mining permit for the Humboldt facility will require State review of Kennecott’s application and public hearings before approval would be considered.  Construction of their own haul road and extension of electric utilities will require Kennecott to amend its Mining Permit, effectively restarting the permitting process with public hearings and another DEQ decision.

To further complicate its plans, Kennecott lacks a required underground injection permit from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has also requested that the EPA conduct studies relating to the endangered Kirtland’s warbler and the threatened Canada lynx before issuing a decision on Kennecott’s federal permit.  The USFWS has suggested that potential mining affects to the native Coaster Brook Trout could also complicate Kennecott’s application process. The USFWS will issue a 12 month finding on the petition on December.

Author Eric Hansen to give Presentation on Sulfide Mining in Wisconsin

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Stand By Your Land

Award-Winning Author, Noted Hiker Eric Hansen Will Present the Keynote Address for the Wisconsin Sierra Club Autumn Assembly on October 11 in Wisconsin Dells
His Theme Will Be:

Stand By Your Land:
Wisconsin and the U.P.; The Powerful Storylines of Our Iconic Landscapes and the Citizens Campaigns That Have Defended Them

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