An Ingham County Circuit Judge has delayed a decision on whether to grant a mining permit for the state’s first sulfide mine according to Mining Journal. The legal action has delayed a decision on the permit, which following a public comment period conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), was expected by June 13. Judge Paula J.M. Manderfield of Lansing has since ordered MDEQ to postpone its decision pending the results of a June 22nd hearing on an appeal filed by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Huron Mountain Club, and the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Inc. Their appeal seeks a formal hearing to determine whether the mining permit filed by Kennecott Minerals is complete and to halt any further processing of the application until the permit application is verified to be complete. The groups filing the lawsuit are arguing that the application is incomplete with Kennecott Mining failing to adequately address impacts on areas surrounding Kennecott’s proposed Eagle Mine. The appeal was filed following an administrative judge’s ruling that a petition filed in May with the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings ruling that it does not have jurisdiction to over the issue until the permit process is incomplete.
The 60-page petition filed in May charged that Kennecott’s application is missing or includes inadequate information on a variety of issues relating to the proposed mining project in the Upper Peninsula’s Marquette County. The mining project, dubbed the “Eagle Project” and planned by the international Kennecott Minerals Company, would be Michigan’s first sulfide mining operation. The area in which the proposed mine would be constructed is an ecologically important site called the Yellow Dog Plains near Big Bay, Michigan at the headwaters of the Salmon Trout and Yellow Dog Rivers. The information that is purportedly missing from the application includes details relating to groundwater and hydrogeologic data, surface water level and discharge rate data, groundwater and surface water quality data, meterological data, terrestrial flora and fauna data, and transportation plans and impacts. Such information could be critical in evaluating the project, as the metallic sulfide mining that Kennecott hopes to conduct at the site is environmentally destructive with a mining process that could potentially cause significant pollution of surface waters and underground water aquifers.
Another potential complication for Kennecott—aside from the court action and public opposition to the project—is the recent finding of a rare bird species in the Yellow Dog Plains. The bird, Kirtland’s Warbler is a federally listed endangered spices of which only 1,400 remain in ten Michigan counties. The bird is incredibly rare, with only eighteen birds being counted in 2005. The birds have limited habitats and nest only in stands of jack pines five to twenty feet tall and five to twenty years old. Such habitats may have been destroyed in a 6,000-acre fire in Huron National Forest, forcing the Warblers to move into the Yellow Dog Plains. Should the bird’s sighting be confirmed with the United State Fish and Wildlife Service to document, the Yellow Dog Plains Watershed Preserve could potentially seek legal action to protect the habitat.
The proposed mine has been met with considerable grassroots organizing in the Upper Peninsula. A variety of organizations—Eagle Alliance, Save the Wild UP, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Wolf Pack, and other groups—have organized in opposition to the mine. According to an email sent out recently by Save the Wild UP, all Michigan native tribes have passed a resolution opposing sulfide mining in the state, as has the Green Party of Michigan. Land Owners Opposed to Sulfide Mining has also grown to 320 supporters.
