MARQUETTE -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Oil, Gas, and Minerals Division (OGMD) has extended the closing date of the public comment period for the Eagle East Mining Permit Amendment request to 5 p.m. July 20, 2017. Mail your comments to: DEQ Eagle East Permit Amendment, OGMD, 1504 W. Washington St, Marquette, MI 49855; or E-mail comments to: DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov, with "Eagle East Permit Amendment" as the subject.
The Mining Action Group (formerly Save the Wild U.P. and now part of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, or UPEC) says Lundin Mining’s requested amendment of the Eagle Mine permit would require building more than 8 kilometers of new tunnels to reach a totally different orebody, "Eagle East."
"Eagle East is a new orebody located beyond the previously permitted project boundary for the Eagle Mine," the Mining Action Group states on their Web site. This major expansion could have serious environmental impacts that were never considered under the original permit. More mining will mean more tailings, more dewatering, and increased risk of contamination."
DEQ officials have stated they are reviewing the application amendment just as they would an application for a new permit. They held a public hearing on Eagle East on June 8, 2017. The original deadline for comments was July 6, 2017. It has been extended to Wednesday, July 20.
Click here to read the application amendment.
Click here to read the Mining Action Group's questions concerning Eagle East.
See also: "Questions on Eagle East: DEQ to hold public meeting June 8."
More details coming soon.
Showing posts with label DEQ Public Meeting on Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DEQ Public Meeting on Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment. Show all posts
Monday, July 17, 2017
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Questions on Eagle East: DEQ to hold public meeting June 8
From: Mining Action Group*
This aerial photograph shows (1) Eagle Mine facility and active drill rigs in the (2) southern drilling area for Eagle East, (3) northern drilling area for Eagle East and (4) eastern drilling area for Eagle East. The general location of the Eagle East ore body, some 3000 feet below the surface, is outlined by the large circle. Click on photo for larger version. (May 2017 photograph © Jeremiah Eagle Eye)
MARQUETTE -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is holding a public meeting on the permit amendment request to expand Eagle Mine's operations to include Eagle East -- and eight kilometers of tunnels to connect these ore bodies. The public meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 8, 2017, at the Westwood High School, 300 Westwood Dr, Ishpeming.**
While the proposed permit "amendment" is described as a "significant change" to the Eagle Mine permit, Eagle East is actually a new ore body, located beyond the previously permitted boundary of Eagle Mine. More mining spells serious trouble for the environment, with a widening industrial footprint and impacts never considered under the original permit. More mining means more tailings, more dewatering, and an increased risk of water contamination.
QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT EAGLE EAST
1. Lundin Mining claims that the Eagle East deposit will extend the life of Eagle Mine by only one or two years. What the mine doesn’t mention is that this modest extension to life of the mine comes at a cost: increased truck traffic, increased air emissions, more toxic mining waste permanently stored in a pit lake at Humboldt Mill, and increased discharge of pollutants to the Middle Branch of the Escanaba River. Is Eagle East worth the enormous environmental footprint?
2. Lundin describes the combined ore as "Eagle ore" but Eagle and Eagle East are two different ore bodies, born from different volcanogenic events and sources. The new Eagle East ore body contains higher grades of copper and nickel, as well as other toxic heavy metals.
3. How will this new ore body impact water quality? The Eagle East ore body is located three thousand feet below the surface, so the ore and waste rock contain high quantities of entrapped salts from ancient brines, laced with heavy metals. This will, in turn, create long-term problems for the Humboldt Pit, where the addition of huge amounts of Eagle East waste tailings will dramatically increase Total Dissolved Solids. At the present Eagle Mine, the wastewater treatment plant will also need a new crystallizer to handle the salts and metals.
4. Last year’s undisclosed "partial pillar collapse" at Eagle Mine draws the overall safety of the expansion into question.*** Has the underlying geology been thoroughly studied? Can we trust Lundin to tell us when our watersheds and their employees are in danger? Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that a Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation found that a significant "large block failure" resulted from an undetected rock fracture. Mining experts have repeatedly warned that the Eagle ore body is filled with hard-to-map "smaller-scale discontinuities that could weaken the rock mass." Was the data correctly interpreted? Has the stability of Eagle Mine been dangerously overestimated from the beginning? Concerns about last year’s rock failure at Eagle Mine must be addressed before the company’s mining permit is amended.
Written public comment on the proposed permit amendment will be accepted until 5 p.m. on July 6, 2017. Send all comments to DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov, including "Eagle East Permit Amendment" as the subject, or mail them to:
DEQ Eagle East Permit Amendment
Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals
1504 West Washington Street
Marquette, MI 49855
Editor's Notes:
* The Mining Action Group (MAG), formerly Save the Wild U.P., is a volunteer grassroots effort defending the clean water and wild places of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the dangers of sulfide mining. MAG is a new semi-autonomous arm of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC).
** See Keweenaw Now's May 30, 2017, announcement of the public meeting: "MDEQ to hold public meeting on Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment June 8; public comments accepted until July 6."
*** See the Mining Action Group's May 25, 2017, article, "Eagle Mine Buries Underground Collapse," citing details of a 2016 underground collapse incident at Eagle Mine and grave concerns with the company’s lack of transparency.
MARQUETTE -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is holding a public meeting on the permit amendment request to expand Eagle Mine's operations to include Eagle East -- and eight kilometers of tunnels to connect these ore bodies. The public meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 8, 2017, at the Westwood High School, 300 Westwood Dr, Ishpeming.**
While the proposed permit "amendment" is described as a "significant change" to the Eagle Mine permit, Eagle East is actually a new ore body, located beyond the previously permitted boundary of Eagle Mine. More mining spells serious trouble for the environment, with a widening industrial footprint and impacts never considered under the original permit. More mining means more tailings, more dewatering, and an increased risk of water contamination.
QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT EAGLE EAST
1. Lundin Mining claims that the Eagle East deposit will extend the life of Eagle Mine by only one or two years. What the mine doesn’t mention is that this modest extension to life of the mine comes at a cost: increased truck traffic, increased air emissions, more toxic mining waste permanently stored in a pit lake at Humboldt Mill, and increased discharge of pollutants to the Middle Branch of the Escanaba River. Is Eagle East worth the enormous environmental footprint?
2. Lundin describes the combined ore as "Eagle ore" but Eagle and Eagle East are two different ore bodies, born from different volcanogenic events and sources. The new Eagle East ore body contains higher grades of copper and nickel, as well as other toxic heavy metals.
3. How will this new ore body impact water quality? The Eagle East ore body is located three thousand feet below the surface, so the ore and waste rock contain high quantities of entrapped salts from ancient brines, laced with heavy metals. This will, in turn, create long-term problems for the Humboldt Pit, where the addition of huge amounts of Eagle East waste tailings will dramatically increase Total Dissolved Solids. At the present Eagle Mine, the wastewater treatment plant will also need a new crystallizer to handle the salts and metals.
4. Last year’s undisclosed "partial pillar collapse" at Eagle Mine draws the overall safety of the expansion into question.*** Has the underlying geology been thoroughly studied? Can we trust Lundin to tell us when our watersheds and their employees are in danger? Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that a Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation found that a significant "large block failure" resulted from an undetected rock fracture. Mining experts have repeatedly warned that the Eagle ore body is filled with hard-to-map "smaller-scale discontinuities that could weaken the rock mass." Was the data correctly interpreted? Has the stability of Eagle Mine been dangerously overestimated from the beginning? Concerns about last year’s rock failure at Eagle Mine must be addressed before the company’s mining permit is amended.
Written public comment on the proposed permit amendment will be accepted until 5 p.m. on July 6, 2017. Send all comments to DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov, including "Eagle East Permit Amendment" as the subject, or mail them to:
DEQ Eagle East Permit Amendment
Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals
1504 West Washington Street
Marquette, MI 49855
Editor's Notes:
* The Mining Action Group (MAG), formerly Save the Wild U.P., is a volunteer grassroots effort defending the clean water and wild places of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the dangers of sulfide mining. MAG is a new semi-autonomous arm of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC).
** See Keweenaw Now's May 30, 2017, announcement of the public meeting: "MDEQ to hold public meeting on Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment June 8; public comments accepted until July 6."
*** See the Mining Action Group's May 25, 2017, article, "Eagle Mine Buries Underground Collapse," citing details of a 2016 underground collapse incident at Eagle Mine and grave concerns with the company’s lack of transparency.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
MDEQ to hold public meeting on Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment June 8; public comments accepted until July 6
MARQUETTE/LANSING -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Oil, Gas, and Minerals Division (OGMD), will hold a public meeting from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, 2017, at the Westwood High School auditorium, 300 Westwood Drive, Ishpeming, Michigan 49849, on the Eagle Mine LLC (Eagle), Eagle East Mining Permit Application Amendment. The MDEQ will also accept written public comment on the request for amendment following the public meeting until 5 p.m. July 6, 2017.
The MDEQ received an application on March 22, 2017, from Eagle requesting approval to amend their Mining Permit MP 01 2007, issued under Part 632, Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, to mine the Eagle East mineral resource. The MDEQ, OGMD, determined that the request for amendment constitutes a significant change from the conditions of the approved mine permit, and on May 5, 2017, the permittee was notified that the application was determined to be administratively complete.
According to Melanie Humphrey, geological technician in the MDEQ Marquette Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals, Upper Peninsula District, the amendment application will be reviewed in the same manner as a new permit.
"The public meeting next week is regarding a request to amend an existing permit, not another separate permit," Humphrey said. "Regardless, we are going through the review process as we would a new permit application, which includes a public information meeting. We will consider all comments and information in our review before making a proposed decision on the request. Before making a final decision, the MDEQ will hold a public hearing on the proposed decision. The date of the hearing will depend on when we are finished with our review."
The purpose of the June 8 meeting is to inform the public that the MDEQ has received the application for amendment request, to provide information regarding the proposed amendment and departmental review process, and to allow interested parties the opportunity to comment and/or ask questions on the proposal. To accommodate all parties that wish to provide oral comment, presentations will initially be limited to five minutes. This limit may be reduced or extended upon the discretion of the meeting facilitator. Written comments will also be received at the meeting.
Interested persons may submit written comments by mail or e-mail until 5 p.m. July 6, 2017. Mail your comments to DEQ Eagle East Permit Amendment, Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals, 1504 West Washington Street, Marquette, MI 49855. E-mail your comments regarding the application for amendment request to the designated MDEQ mailbox at DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov, including "Eagle East Permit Amendment" as the subject. All verbal and written comments presented during the meeting and comment period will be considered prior to making a proposed decision on the request for amendment.
Click here to access the Lundin Mining Corp. Request for Amendment and other documents. Click under "Applications on File" for more information.
The MDEQ received an application on March 22, 2017, from Eagle requesting approval to amend their Mining Permit MP 01 2007, issued under Part 632, Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, to mine the Eagle East mineral resource. The MDEQ, OGMD, determined that the request for amendment constitutes a significant change from the conditions of the approved mine permit, and on May 5, 2017, the permittee was notified that the application was determined to be administratively complete.
According to Melanie Humphrey, geological technician in the MDEQ Marquette Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals, Upper Peninsula District, the amendment application will be reviewed in the same manner as a new permit.
"The public meeting next week is regarding a request to amend an existing permit, not another separate permit," Humphrey said. "Regardless, we are going through the review process as we would a new permit application, which includes a public information meeting. We will consider all comments and information in our review before making a proposed decision on the request. Before making a final decision, the MDEQ will hold a public hearing on the proposed decision. The date of the hearing will depend on when we are finished with our review."
The purpose of the June 8 meeting is to inform the public that the MDEQ has received the application for amendment request, to provide information regarding the proposed amendment and departmental review process, and to allow interested parties the opportunity to comment and/or ask questions on the proposal. To accommodate all parties that wish to provide oral comment, presentations will initially be limited to five minutes. This limit may be reduced or extended upon the discretion of the meeting facilitator. Written comments will also be received at the meeting.
Interested persons may submit written comments by mail or e-mail until 5 p.m. July 6, 2017. Mail your comments to DEQ Eagle East Permit Amendment, Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals, 1504 West Washington Street, Marquette, MI 49855. E-mail your comments regarding the application for amendment request to the designated MDEQ mailbox at DEQ-Mining-Comments@michigan.gov, including "Eagle East Permit Amendment" as the subject. All verbal and written comments presented during the meeting and comment period will be considered prior to making a proposed decision on the request for amendment.
Click here to access the Lundin Mining Corp. Request for Amendment and other documents. Click under "Applications on File" for more information.
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