On Monday, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced that it has approved a permit for a sulfide mine near Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The so-called “Eagle Project,” which would be operated by Kennecott Minerals, has drawn considerable public opposition over the past year and a half. Opponents of the mine have highlighted the environmental destructiveness of sulfide mining and warned that the mine threatens the unique ecosystem of the Yellow Dog Plains.
Earlier this year, the approval process for the mine was temporarily suspended after the DEQ realized that documents critical of the proposed mine had been withheld from the publicly released permit application. However, following an internal investigation that was widely criticized by opponents of the mine, the DEQ ruled the documents were only unintentionally withheld from the public. Despite calls for the removal of Michigan’s chief mining regulator by opposition groups, no officials were removed or strongly sanctioned as a result of the controversy. Instead, in a three-page document the DEQ explains that the mine will “not pollute, impair, or destroy the air, water, or other natural resources or the public trust in those resources” and must therefore be given approval pending public comment.
Save the Wild UP, one of the major organizations opposing the mine, criticized the decision on Monday, as did representatives of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve and the National Wildlife Federation. Opponents charge that there are still many deficiencies in the application and that the DEQ’s previous failures make it impossible to trust the agency. Dick Huey, co-founder of Save the Wild UP, stated:
Our Governor apparently buys a loose promise of short-term cash and turns a blind eye to the long-term environmental damage of every sulfide mine that has ever been. DEQ follows the political wind, with an eye on our Governor. Michigan citizens and anyone drinking Great Lakes water should fear long term elevated incidence of Alzheimer’s, birth defects and cancer if permitting this mine opens the door to a new sulfide mining district.
There was also criticism of the DEQ’s role in facilitating rather than regulating mining, with UP resident Philip Power stating:
At the start of all this, some of us actually believed the DEQ could handle review of Kennecott’s permit applications with integrity and impartiality. The agency’s record since then belies these hopes. The internal culture of the Office of Geological Survey is to facilitate mining, not regulate it. Documents have been suppressed, Freedom of Information requests ignored, and the commitments made by the agency to prevent pollution have been overthrown. Now the DEQ proposes to grant to Kennecott an air permit that allows the company to spew toxic copper and nickel dust all over the central UP. It’s increasingly clear the DEQ has neither the expertise nor the guts properly to review this project.
Additionally, the Michigan DEQ has resumed the public comment period and has scheduled upcoming public hearings on the mine application. Hearings will now take place in the Upper Peninsula near Marquette in Forsyth Township at the West Branch Community Center from September 11-13, and in the Lower Peninsula in Lansing at the Lansing Center on September 19. Written comments can be submitted via email to DEQ-Kennecott-comments@michigan.gov or via postal mail to:
DEQ/DNR Kennecott Comments
Office of Geological Survey
P.O. Box 30256
Lansing, Michigan 48909-7756
A final decision is expected on or before November 14, 2007.
Related posts:
- Sulfide Mining Application Decision Deadline Extended
- Activists Respond to Investigation of Michigan DEQ in Sulfide Mining Controversy
- DEQ Did Not Intentionally Suppress Sulfide Mining Documents According to Report
- Michigan Sulfide Mining Permit Process Stalled by Court Ruling
- DEQ Approves Permits for Kennecott’s Sulfide Mine
