Opinion: When talking PolyMet, don't be fooled by Michigan's Eagle Mine

This June 19, 2015, aerial photo shows 1) Salmon Trout River, 2) unfiltered vent stack (MVAR) over Eagle ore body and 3) Eagle Mine portal into Eagle Rock. (Photo courtesy Save the Wild U.P.)

[Editor's Note:  Recently Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton visited the Eagle Mine near Big Bay, Michigan, reportedly to help him make a very difficult and controversial decision about whether to allow a mine similar to Eagle Mine (polymetal sulfide orebody) -- the proposed PolyMet copper mine to be constructed in northeast Minnesota. Kathleen Heideman, president of Save the Wild U.P., wrote him the following letter, which was previously published in the Minnesota Star Tribune and is reprinted here with permission.]

Dear Gov. Mark Dayton,

When we learned you’d be touring the Eagle Mine in Michigan’s wild Upper Peninsula, we -- board and advisory board members of the grass-roots environmental group Save the Wild U.P. -- asked to meet with you, to share key concerns about the mine. We’d like you to make an informed decision on Minnesota’s proposed PolyMet project. Since you were unable to meet with us, we’re now sharing our concerns publicly.

You toured Eagle Mine’s facility, which the sulfide mining industry deems an environmentally responsible sulfide mine. Did you happen to notice the newly constructed, heavy-duty paved haul road you traveled on from Big Bay -- pavement that ends at the gates of the mine? Under Michigan’s Part 632 legislation governing sulfide mining, that road should have been regulated as a mining haul road, subject to an environmental-impact assessment and permit revisions. Through a series of political and corporate sleights of hand, the road was paid for by Eagle but built as a county road.

Did Eagle show you its air pollution? For example, did Eagle proudly show you the Main Vent Air Raise (MVAR) on the bank of the Salmon Trout River, a wild, blue-ribbon trout stream flowing swiftly down to Lake Superior? During the mine’s permitting phase, Eagle pledged to use environmentally responsible bag-house filters to remove heavy metals, sulfide rock particles, exhaust from underground equipment and cancer-causing particulates ejected from the mine following blasting. Did Eagle mention that it changed the design, revised the permit and removed all filters? Now, twice daily, the underground sulfide orebody is blasted and a plume of heavy metals is blown from the stack at high velocity. The pollutants are carried on the wind, falling out over the surrounding environment. Only one stack test was ever done, more than a year ago, prior to the mine becoming fully operational. Twice daily, we are told, someone stands at the vent site and views the plume to rate how dark it is, a sort of visual opacity test -- although one blast takes place at night. The actual contents of Eagle’s air pollution plume remain entirely unassessed and unregulated.

Spring-fed tributary of East Branch of the Salmon Trout River, near Eagle Mine; flowing water on Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo courtesy Save the Wild U.P.)

Did Eagle show you the Salmon Trout River, a pristine, groundwater-fed river? At the mine’s treated wastewater infiltration system, deionized wastewater is returned to the shallow groundwater aquifer, where it bonds with metals in the ground as it percolates. Almost immediately, it is outside of Eagle’s fence line. Did Eagle officials explain that they are using groundwater as if it were a sewer pipe, conveying wastewater directly to springs that feed the East Branch of the Salmon Trout River?

Detail showing spring-fed tributary of East Branch of the Salmon Trout River, near Eagle Mine; flowing water on Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo courtesy Save the Wild U.P.)

We’d like you to understand that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have allowed Eagle to use the wrong permit, a groundwater discharge permit that meets only human drinking-water values, rather than a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Clean Water Act permit, with the more sensitive pollution limits for copper and other contaminants needed to protect macroinvertebrates and other stream life, including trout. We hope you learned that there are no monitoring wells tracking the movement of Eagle’s wastewater toward these critical springs. The Salmon Trout River will be harmed; it’s simply a question of when.

Eagle’s milling facility, the Humboldt Mill, also poses multiple threats to clean water, with discharges from its tailings degrading the Escanaba River watershed and the Lake Michigan basin. Note that parent company Lundin Mining Corp. provided a mere $23.2 million in total financial assurances for both the mine ($18 million) and the mill ($5.2 million) -- a tiny sum, inadequate to fund even an EPA cleanup investigation.*

The sulfide mining industry would like you to ignore these serious issues -- impacts to the air, water and land, as well as grossly inadequate bonding assurances -- while falsely portraying the Eagle Mine as environmentally protective. The Eagle Mine should be viewed as a dire warning, rather than a good example. We urge you to deny the PolyMet permit and protect Minnesota’s most valuable natural resource: clean water.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Heideman
President of Save the Wild U.P.
president@savethewildup.org

Board of Directors, Save the Wild U.P.
Advisory Board, Save the Wild U.P.**

Editor's Notes:
* See our Aug. 2, 2015, article, "Citizens question DEQ's wastewater discharge permit for Eagle Mine's Humboldt Mill; deadline for comments is Aug. 3."
** For more information visit savethewildup.org.

Guest article: Mine haul roads and their potential environmental impacts

By Esteban Chiriboga, GLIFWC (Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission) Mapping Specialist

Published in GLIFWC's Fall 2014 issue of MAZINA'IGAN. Reprinted here with permission. 

Eagle mine haul road under construction. No evidence of silt fencing or erosion control best management practices is visible. (Photo © and courtesy Esteban Chiriboga. Reprinted with permission.)

MADISON, Wis. -- Mine haul roads are integral parts of a mine operation. These roads can vary in size from single lane dirt roads located within the footprint of a mine to multi-lane paved highways used to transport materials to and from a mine site. Roads located within the mine footprint are usually included in the analysis of potential environmental impacts of a mine. However, roads that lead away from the project site to processing areas or regional shipping hubs are often overlooked, and the impacts that occur along these transportation routes may be discounted.

The Red Dog mine in Alaska is one of the more notable examples of a project that has impacted the environment along its haul road. This open pit zinc, lead and silver mine transports crushed rock from the open mine pits to a concentrating facility. From there, the concentrate is transported via a 50-mile haul road to a port facility. Sampling along the haul road conducted in the early 1990s showed elevated concentrations of metals on the road surface and on the road shoulder. This finding led to additional studies which indicated that metal deposition has occurred along the road, and concentrations decrease with distance from the road right-of-way. Elevated metal concentrations in several plant species are detectable up to 1600 meters (approximately 1 mile) from the road (ADEC, 2002).*

The source of the metals is concentrate dust that adheres to the truck tires as well as trace amounts of concentrate dust on the surface of the trucks (ADEC,2002).* It is important to note that the trucks have hydraulically sealed doors that completely enclose the concentrate inside. Even with this precaution, contamination has still occurred.

Here in the Lake Superior region, there are ongoing concerns about impacts along mine haul roads in Minnesota and Michigan ceded territories. The proposed PolyMet mine in Minnesota is very similar to Red Dog in its operations and design. Although in the case of PolyMet, the crushed ore would be transported by rail and not by truck, GLIFWC staff are concerned about the potential for environmental impacts along the rail line. PolyMet proposes to use open rail cars that have gaps along the side door hinges to transport ore from the pit to the processing facility. There is no question that ore dust will escape the cars through these openings. In response to GLIFWC comments, the lead agencies for the PolyMet Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) have required water quality monitoring along the rail corridor between the pits and the processing facility. GLIFWC staff will continue to advocate for the use of sealed rail cars to reduce the possibility of contamination along the rail line.

The construction of a mine haul road also impacts the environment. The Eagle mine in Michigan is currently rebuilding sections of a county road to accommodate large ore trucks.

The Eagle mine haul road has caused habitat fragmentation in this biologically rich area. (Photo © and courtesy Esteban Chiriboga. Reprinted with permission.)

The construction of this road through a remote area involves filling of wetlands and numerous stream crossings. This area, which is included in the Lake Superior Binational Program Important Habitat List as an area of high biodiversity, has suffered habitat fragmentation due to this construction. It is possible that the use of salt in the winter will lead to water quality impacts in the area’s small creeks, and unintended ore dust deposition along the route is likely. Additional impacts may result from pumping water out of local creeks to use in dust suppression activities during construction.

Tanker spraying water for dust control along the Eagle mine haul road construction site. (Photo © and courtesy Esteban Chiriboga. Reprinted with permission.)

To our knowledge, the effects of pumping on creek water levels and biota have not been characterized. In addition, dust suppression often involves mixing the water with chemicals, and the effects of these chemicals have not been identified.

GLIFWC staff have and will continue to advocate for inclusion of mine haul roads in the analysis of environmental impacts of proposed mine projects. In the case of the road construction at the Eagle mine, the environmental impacts of the road were not evaluated when the permits for the mine were considered. The Eagle mine’s haul road is permitted under general state permits that are issued for road construction. These general permits, while often adequate for normal roads, do not require the data and analysis needed for a road that will be used to transport mine concentrate and/or metallic ores. These materials are often reactive when exposed to air and water and, as exemplified by the Red Dog haul road, can create environmental impacts in very small quantities. The failure to evaluate infrastructure associated with mining activities appears to undermine the goal of clearly disclosing all impacts associated with mineral development projects. Mine haul roads should also be included in any analysis of the cumulative impacts of multiple mine projects on the ceded territories.

Notes:
*Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), 2002, Fugitive Dust Background Document -- Draft Report.

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