Tag Archives: Legal

Send A Thank You to the DNR

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Send a Thank You to the DNR

It is important to provide positive feedback as well as our concerns to governmental agencies. Too often we only send letters of disappointment and concern. Save the Wild UP asks that you send a letter thanking the DNR for their serious consideration of issues raised by the public concerning the use of our public lands for profit by a private corporation and the sloppy and flawed Mining and Reclamation Plan.

Here are e-mails for DNR decision makers and NRC contacts:

Lynne Boyd- boydlm@michigan.gov

Rebecca Humphries- HUMPHRIR@michigan.gov

Mindy Koch- KOCHA@michigan.gov

Teresa Gloden- GLODENT@michigan.gov

Consider cutting and pasting the following wording or write your own.

“Thank you for carefully considering the public’s comments and concerns about Kennecott’s request to use our public lands for their proposed Eagle Project and their incomplete and flawed Mining and Reclamation Plan. Sulfide mining is an extremely risky process, and your efforts to require additional information from Kennecott are necessary for making a fully informed decision and protecting our public lands and Great Lakes. I applaud you for acting on behalf of Michigan’s citizens, the future of our precious freshwater resources, and this Great Lakes State. It is my opinion that both Kennecott’s request for the Surface Land Use Lease of 120 acres on the Yellow Dog Plains and the Mining and Reclamation Plan should be denied or thrown out due to their flawed, incomplete, often sloppy and dangerous applications. The State of Michigan should expect much higher standards from a self-proclaimed industry leader such as Kennecott. This first proposed mine under the new Part 632 statute and rules sets the tone for all the other mining projects that may follow. Let us do it right the first time and make sure Michigan doesn’t create an open-door policy for disreputable mining practices in the Great Lakes State.”

Click here to send an online letter to the DNR, call the Governor or express your dissappointment with the DEQ approval.

Colorado City Says No Uranium Mining

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Citizens across the nation are taking action…

“On Dec. 4, the Fort Collins City Council made Colorado history.
With a standing-room-only crowd that had just spent one hour testifying, the council took the bold leadership step of helping to secure the future of northern Colorado’s economy and environment. Amidst hoots, hollers and eruptive applause, Fort Collins became the first Colorado city to pass a resolution against uranium mining in the northern part of our state. ” Click here for the rest of this Dec. 19, Rocky Mountain News story

Maybe our state and local leaders will take bold steps to help secure Michigan’s future?

MDEQ Sued for Issuing Illegal Permits

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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.

Click here for the full Press Release

Click here for the Mining Journal Story

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Comments in Opposition to the Mining, Air Use and Groundwater Discharge Permits

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Kennecott filed its Mining Permit Application with the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality February 2006. The three partners opposing the proposed mine, National Wildlife Federation, Huron Mountain Club and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, were already involved with studies of the negative environmental impacts such a mining operation would bring to the Yellow Dog Plains in northwest Marquette County. Upon receiving the Kennecott Mining Permit application, the three groups procured additional technical experts to review every aspect of Kennecott’s 8,000 page Mining Permit Application. Other groups, namely Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and Save the Wild UP, performed other functions including field studies of baseline conditions, public relations, political communications and community outreach.

The State of Michigan decided the permitting process for the proposed mine would consist of three separate permits: the Mining Permit, the Air Permit and the Groundwater Discharge Permit. Approximately nine months after the Kennecott application was filed with the State, the three mine opposition partners performing the technical reviews decided to concentrate their efforts on one permit each to better focus on the issues, improve the efficient use of limited resources and to eliminate overlap and redundancy in the ongoing technical reviews that each group was conducting. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) took the Mining Permit, the Huron Mountain Club (HMC) took the Air Permit and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) took the Groundwater Discharge Permit.

The comments submitted to the Michigan DEQ on October 17, 2007 consist of these three sets of comments:

You may also wish to review the Comments Opposing the Leasing of State Lands to Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company submitted to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources by the National Wildlife federation. (183 kb PDF)

Interesting Inside Look at CEO’s Decision Making Processes

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Chief executives have increasingly incorporated environmental, societal, and governance issues into core strategies, McKinsey research shows.

These CEOs are responding to increasing pressure from employees and consumers, but some also see opportunities to gain a competitive advantage and address global problems.

Click here to read the McKinsey Quarterly article on CEOs and social issues

OH CANADA!

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Canada creates largest Freshwater Marine Protected Area in the World on Lake Superior

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, announced the creation of the largest protected freshwater area in the world. The Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area spans more than one million hectares of Lake Superior. The marine park includes the Thunder Cape at the tip of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in the west, to Bottle Point just east of Terrace Bay, and south to the Canada-US boundary.

To read more about the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area please check out the following links:

Canada’s official governmental website

Duluth News Tribune article

Lake Superior Conservancy and Watershed Council


We applaud Canada’s recent recognition of the value of Lake Superior and their efforts protect and conserve it!  It’s a wonderful start.

NWF review of Kennecott Mining Permit Application

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Below is the introduction of the 700+ page review of Kennecott’s Mining Permit Application (MPA) by the National Wildlife Federation. The report addresses serious legal and technical deficiencies with the MPA. You may download the entire 702 page document as a PDF (It is a large file – 24.8 MB)

Comments in Opposition to Issuance of the Nonferrous Metallic Mining Permit Required by Part 632, NREPA Applied for by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company, February 2006

Submitted to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on October 17, 2007 by National Wildlife Federation, Michelle Halley, Esq.

These comments address the Mining Permit Application (MPA) for a nonferrous metallic mine commonly called the ‘Eagle Project’ originally applied for by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company (KEMC) in February of 2006, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) subsequent preliminary approval issued on July 30, 2007 and the Draft Permit MP 01 2007.

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is a national conservation and education organization with over 4 million members. The Great Lakes and Lake Superior have been focal points of our work for over 25 years since they are globally important natural resources for wildlife and humans. This project poses dire threats to the Lake Superior watershed.

Our review of this MPA reveals some startling likelihoods should the mine be allowed to proceed as proposed:

  • Wetlands drawdown of up to 12 feet near the mine site
  • The Salmon Trout River’s flow reduced by 0.16 cfs near the mine site
  • Crown pillar instability with an estimated average weighted RMR of 45 rated “unstable”
  • Concentrations of sulfate, nickel, total dissolved solids, aluminum, beryllium, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, and manganese exceeding relevant water quality standards in the underground mine
  • Unanticipated inflow flooding the mine to the point that the WWTP could not handle the volume and the water’s poor quality
  • Acid Mine Drainage many orders of magnitude higher than predicted
  • Deposition of more than 430 tons of particulate matter deposited within 1.6 miles of the Site and more than 959 tons of particulate matter, including more than 7,000 lbs of copper and 7,130 lbs of nickel, deposited within 12.4 miles of the Site over the 8-year life of the mine
  • TDRSA leaking highly acidic and metal-laden water into ground water and eventually, surface water

These likely and scientifically supported scenarios – none of them discussed or disproved by the MPA — demonstrate the low quality of KEMC’s MPA, that the MPA does not meet standards in Part 632 and other Michigan and federal laws, and that the MPA should be summarily denied.

Decision Time Article

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Mine debate echoes across state – Decision time near

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

TRAVERSE CITY (AP) — Biking enthusiast Michael Robold recoils at the idea of a copper and nickel mine amid the woods and rivers of the Yellow Dog Plains.

‘‘It would be a travesty!’’ he exclaimed during a rally called by opponents.

Click here to read the rest of the story

New Book: “The Real Story of the Flambeau mine”

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The Buzzards Have LandedThe Buzzards Have Landed! tells the real story of how a British mining company muscled its way into a small rural community in northern Wisconsin to build a gold, copper and silver mine on the banks of the Flambeau River.

Stories of the grassroots resistance movement, protests, arrests, state and local governmental actions, mining company maneuvers and lawsuits abound. The book also includes numerous charts and graphs demonstrating the negligible impact of the mine on the local economy and the serious nature of ongoing pollution problems at the mine site.

Authors Roscoe Churchill and Laura Furtman combine human interest with hard facts to create a story certain to be of interest to environmentalists, Native American communities, sociologists, lawmakers, environmental attorneys, economists, educators, historians … and anyone who enjoys reading a colorful story!

Learn More about the book or find out how to order a copy.

Al Gedicks: Sulfide Farce

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Examples show sulfide farce

By Al Gedicks

At the recent public hearings on Kennecott’s proposed Eagle Project metallic sulfide mine, company officials cited Kennecott’s Ladysmith (Wis.) mine as a model of responsible mining. This is sheer nonsense.

Neither the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources nor Kennecott disputes that there is water pollution at the mining site. Public records show that the Flambeau (Wis.) Mine has polluted Stream C, a state navigable water that flows directly into the Flambeau River, with levels of copper that exceed the state’s water quality standards. At the recent contested case hearing on Kennecott’s application for a Certificate of Completion for the Flambeau Mine, Dr. John Coleman of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission testified that all the copper readings in water discharging to Stream C between 1999 and 2005 exceeded what the Department of Natural Resources estimates is the level of concern for discharge to waters such as Stream C, and on average exceeded the level that was considered allowable under the wastewater discharge permit that was in place during mining.

To read the rest of the article click here

For detailed infromation on Flambeau mine click here