Last Stand at Eagle Rock

This post originally appeared on the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund Blog.  

Last Stand at Eagle Rock
by Drew YoungeDyke
A new suflide mining operation in the heart of the Upper Peninsula wilderness is generating controvery over minerals, jobs, rivers, and trout.

On Wednesday, November 25, Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield dismissed the case challenging the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s permit allowing Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. to proceed with its Eagle Rock nickel and copper mine.Conservation groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, the Huron Mountain Club, the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and Save the Wild UP, oppose the project because the mine will be almost directly beneath the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River, the spawning grounds for Lake Superior’s rare coaster brook trout, and it will desecrate a religious site.

The mine facilities will be built on 30 acres in the middle of the Yellow Dog Plains, a pure backcountry wilderness valued by hunters, anglers, hikers, moose, and wolves. Eagle Rock, the site of the mine entrance, is a spiritual place for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The Eagle Rock mine would extract nickel and copper from sulfide rock, which produces acid. Waste rock would be kept on site, mixed with limestone or cement, and poured into the mine when it closes. Conservationists worry that pollutants could leach from the waste rock into the river.

Proponents of the mine argue that the Kennecott mine and others like it will provide sorely-needed jobs in an area devastated by high unemployment. Each new mine is anticipated to create 200-300 new jobs which will last 5-10 years, the estimated life of the mines. Mine officials contend that new mining practices and water treatment requirements will prevent the environmental catastrophe feared by conservationists. Dan Hornbogen, a Marquette resident and mine supporter, told the Detroit Free Press, “there are no guarantees, but these people know what they’re doing.”

Kennecott certainly knows how to mine – they’re a wholly owned subsidiary of London giant Rio Tinto – but their track record inspires less confidence in their ability to mitigate environmental damage. Contaminated water still flows into Wisconsin’s Flambeau River from waste rock at a Kennecott mine which closed in the 1990s, and Kennecott’s Greens Creek mine is the second-largest toxic waste polluter in Alaska.

Another concern is that the DEQ simply doesn’t have the resources to monitor the mine or to clean up after it if there is contamination. Though DEQ director Dan Wyatt believes that the company’s $17 million dollar bond would cover any cleanup, the DEQ’s appropriations have been drastically cut over the last decade and they’ve abandoned other cleanup sites in Michigan due to a lack of funding.

Environmental integrity is tough to maintain in any economy, let alone a struggling one. As new mining permits are granted, Michigan citizens have to ask themselves whether a few hundred short-term jobs are worth potential permanent damage to our remaining wild places, our woods, our wildlife, and our rivers.

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