Public Overwhelmingly Opposes Kennecott at Forum

April 27, 2011

At a “community forum” hosted by Kennecott (Rio Tinto) in Marquette yesterday, local residents packed a room at the Ramada Inn.  Overwhelmingly, the message was opposed to Kennecott’s activities in the area.  While dozens spoke against the company, only about 6 people spoke in support of Kennecott.

The opposition was quite diverse, coming from sportsmen, a former employee of Kennecott, a federal government bureaucrat, teachers, doctors, hippies, retirees, and more.

Here’s a story from TV6 on the meeting:

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Rio Tinto to Explore in Ottawa National Forest

April 16, 2011

Rio Tinto has notified the Ottawa National Forest of plans to explore for minerals within the federal forest.  While the federal government owns surface rights to the parcel, the minerals are privately-owned, so the Forest Service is obligated to approve the exploration request.

Rio Tinto plans to drill about 9 miles north of Kenton, in Houghton County, Michigan, on the Ontonagon Ranger District.

Click HERE to see a map of the exploration area.

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Public meeting held on proposed Penokee iron mine, in Wisconsin

February 1, 2011

From Headwaters News:

A standing-room-only crowd of roughly 250 people braved a cold January evening in search of information on an open pit iron mine recently proposed for Iron and Ashland Counties, in Wisconsin.

The meeting, moderated by Northland College President Mike Miller, was initiated by reporter Mike Simonson of KUWS (UW-Superior) and Wisconsin Public Radio.  Simonson said he organized the meeting out of concern that solid information on the proposed mine had been all too scarce. Read the rest of this entry »

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Michigan DEQ-Turned Rio Tinto Employee Talks About Clean Water

January 28, 2011

Kristen Mariuzza, who worked for the Michigan DEQ, reviewed Rio Tinto’s wastewater treatment plans, and signed off on them, began working for the company shortly after approving their plan.  Here, in this TV6 PR piece on Rio “right on schedule” Tinto, Mariuzza explains the plan she approved and now works on will protect water quality.

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Activist-Turned-Miner Laments Failures in Environmental Law

December 22, 2010

A Headwaters News article on Orvana Minerals (trying to open a copper mine next to Lake Superior, near Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park):

According to Anderson, other efforts to protect the environment will likely include the use of a “continuous miner” machine that would grind the rock below the surface—reducing dust emissions at the surface—and gravity-feed it to a conveyor system, a process he describes as “the most economically or green” method available.  Anderson says countries “more advanced” than the United States are already using this mining method and seems to lament the weaknesses in federal and state environmental laws, including Michigan’s “Part 632” mining law that regulates nonferrous, or non iron ore mining in the state. Read the rest of this entry »

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National Water Pollution on the Rise

March 3, 2010

The latest from Charles Duhigg’s “Toxic Waters” series in the New York Times shows that, while Clean Water Act violations are rapidly rising, enforcement actions are declining at the same quick pace.  Part of the problem comes from recent US Supreme Court decisions that have exempted many of the nation’s waterways from protection under the Clean Water Act.

Not many are getting the message.  A recent editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune supporting PolyMet’s controversial NorthMet project claims that environmental laws are strong and are vigorously enforced.  Only four days after the Tribune’s confident editorial, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a strong critique of the environmental review of PolyMet’s project, giving it the lowest possible rating, “environmentally unsatisfactory-inadequate,” and recommending the mine “must not proceed as proposed.” Read the rest of this entry »

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