Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s environmental regulators brushed aside glaring shortcomings in a Kennecott Minerals Co. plan to drill in an Upper Peninsula sulfide rock formation when they gave preliminary approval to the plan today. The nickel mine, which would generate hundreds of thousands of tons of acid-leaching waste rock from underneath the Yellow Dog Plains near Marquette, would be the only mine of its type in Michigan. Several other potential U.P mine sites are pending, as companies wait to see how stringently state officials apply environmental safeguards to Kennecott.
“This sets the bar for what may well be a rush to extract minerals from across the Upper Peninsula, so it’s not just another permit application,” said Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. “We’re appalled that Governor Granholm’s people appear – at least preliminarily – unwilling to set that bar at a level which protects water resources and the tourism-related jobs in the U.P.”
Read the rest of this story: Michigan Environmental Council
1 comment:
A New Acid Mine Mourning in the U.P.: Innocence lost, wildlife & tourism the cost
I am an Upper Peninsula news reporter and the volunteer media advisor for the Turtle Island Project, the Earth Keeper Initiative and the Manoomin Project - all are interfaith environment and civil rights projects in the northwoods along Lake Superior.
It is disappointing that Governor Jennifer Granholm has not come to the rescue of the U.P. by opposing this "acid mine" that is now all but certain to open.
Kennecott Minerals and opponents of the Eagle Mine agree on one thing: The opening of this first sulfide mine will lead to numerous similar mines and then uranium mining.
Actor Jeff Daniels, who married a U.P. native, has also abandoned northern Michigan in our time of need.
Gov. Granholm and Daniels are two big guns who could do much to take us out of the acid mine crosshairs. Instead the two are now apparently engaged in dirty tricks to promote the mine (see link below).
Kennecott has spend tens - if not hundreds - of millions of dollars influencing support for this mine. Am I the only one who thinks this is suspicious - and should be investigated?
How can our lawmakers and state watchdogs - like the MDEQ, MDNR, and media - believe the promises of this international mining company that has an abysmal environmental record?
How far does their deep pockets reach? Who has taken Kennecott money - directly or indirectly?
---
Acid Mine Dirty Tricks: Michigan Governor & Hollywood - Subliminal advertising or bad judgement ?
Urth-TV front page (scroll down a little)
http://www.urth.tv/index.php
Earth Keeper blog::
http://www.urth.tv/content/view/25602/1/
----
Madame Governor: "Have you left no sense of decency?"
Urth TV:
http://www.urth.tv/content/view/24756/397/
Turtle Island Project Blog:
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/state-of-michigan-backs-acid-mine-ignores-tribe-and-naturehave-you-no-sense-of-decency-sir-at-long-last/
---
The Northern Michigan Death Knell: A Funeral For Tourism, Clean Water, Pristine Forests
Urth TV:
http://www.urth.tv/content/view/18871/
EarthKeeper Buzznet Journal:
http://www.buzznet.com/tags/tourism/journals/985491/acid-mine-death-knell-for-northern-michigan/
Post a Comment