MARQUETTE -- For three years, an official request from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for specific information on the proposed metallic sulfide mine has gone unanswered by Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, according to EPA correspondence.
In a letter dated Mar. 13, 2009, Rebecca Harvey, chief of the underground injection control branch of EPA, prodded the mining company for information relevant to ground water safety for the third time in as many years.
"We are requesting that you respond to our questions in order to assist us in determining whether this is any endangerment of an underground source of drinking water," Harvey stated in the letter.
The first request for this information came in March 2006, according to Harvey. Although the company responded to some questions previously, they have failed to respond to EPA inquiries about the proposed mine backfill. Apparently not content to continue waiting, Harvey attached an Apr. 30, 2009, deadline to her request.
Opponents of the proposed mine have consistently expressed concern regarding ground water safety and question why the company has failed to cooperate with the EPA request for three years.
"Kennecott’s evasiveness on questions related directly to the safety of drinking water sources raises another red flag about the company’s ability to operate a mine safely," said Michelle Halley, Lake Superior Project Manager for National Wildlife Federation. "The company submitted its application to mine more than two years ago. Are they refusing to provide the required items or are they simply lacking this critical information? Neither of those scenarios provides any comfort to the citizens of Marquette County."
Halley will be at Michigan Tech to participate in the panel discussion / question-answer session on the proposed sulfide mine, following the showing of the award-winning documentary Mining Madness, Water Wars: The Great Lakes in the Balance at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Earth Day, Apr. 22, in Fisher 135. See more details on this event.
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