MIWATER SETS SIGHTS ON 2012 TO STRENGTHEN PROTECTIONS FOR MICHIGAN’S WATER
Proponents confident its ballot initiative language and messaging will resonate with voters

The Michigan Save Our Water Committee, organizers of the MiWater campaign, today announced it plans to gather signatures for its ballot measure to protect Great Lakes water in 2012. Since the campaign has not begun collecting signatures, it has the option to keep the organization intact in order to gather signatures for the 2012 ballot.

“We set out to draft a very strong measure that will protect Michigan most important natural and economic resource — our fresh water — from the adverse impacts of uranium and sulfide mining,” said Duncan Campbell of the Michigan Save Our Water Committee. “The fact that the special interests opposing our efforts to keep Michigan’s water pure have engaged in so much disinformation and scare tactics is proof positive that we have an effective one-two punch for water.”

Campbell stressed that in addition to drafting effective, legally defensible, and eminently message able language, enormous progress has been made in the effort to garner more attention downstate.

“We knew that it was going to be hard, if not impossible in this climate to raise the money required to get this on the ballot this campaign cycle,” he said.

With much of the heavy lifting done, Campbell is optimistic the team that is taking on the campaign going forward will have the time and means necessary to gather the signatures needed to get on the 2012 general election ballot. It is sad to note that some still stoop to play geographic and class politics in a state which is literally defined by the largest reservoir of fresh water in the world and whose citizens are united by the understanding that there is no pure Michigan without pure water. As Phil Power of the non-partisan Center For Michigan wrote in a piece called “U.P. sulfide mine would mean a few short-term jobs, numerous long-term environmental worries,” (http://goo.gl/MxSl) the type of mining being proposed in Michigan’s UP and across the upper Midwest has limited economic benefit — at the expense of other industries and other jobs. Specifically Power notes that by its own admission the Eagle Project being pushed by Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott will only generate 120 or so mining jobs that would last only around 10 years while the mine is being built and in operation. And economists and businessmen wonder what happens to recreation, tourism, hunting and fishing — the long term economic future of the region — if the mine pollutes the area.

For the record, Campbell, the card carrying Republican said, “We aren’t against mining. But certain types of mining in this water rich environment must be done with the utmost care and strongest oversight and people need to have the straight facts in order to decide for themselves what they value the most in this state.”

MiWater has garnered a number of endorsements from a variety of conservation and environmental groups in Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. It has benefitted from the support of its honorary chairman former Michigan Governor William G. Milliken and others who realize what’s at stake.

“We are so thankful for the support and help we have received from so many quarters,” said Campbell. “While we won’t be running the campaign in 2012, we look forward to supporting the MiWater team all the way to victory because we know that once the petitions hit the streets, many will be eager to sign on knowing there is no pure Michigan without pure water. Our water is the key to life and prosperity in this region and it deserves the utmost protection from threats whether carp or acid mine drainage and uranium pollution.”

More updates will be posted on our website at www.miwater.org

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For more information, contact:
Duncan and Maura Campbell
duncan@miwater.org
maura@miwater.org
313-432-0247
http://www.miwater.org

Michigan Save Our Water Committee
PO Box 7288
Detroit, MI 48207

Only problem is, by Kennecott’s own admission, the 120 or so mining jobs would last only around 10 years while the mine is being built and in operation.  And economists and businessmen wonder what happens to recreation, tourism, hunting and fishing – the long term economic future of the region – if the mine pollutes the area.

Thing is? Almost all sulfide mines pollute. Later on in the piece,

It’s everybody’s bad luck that the ore deposit for the Eagle Prospect mine wound up right in the middle of some of the most environmentally valuable and sensitive woods and waters in all of Michigan.

But merely because rich metals are discovered in a uniquely priceless and fragile environment is no necessary argument those metals should be mined. Suppose a valuable gold deposit were to be discovered right at the foot of Mount Rushmore.  Would it really make sense to open a mine there that might destroy a national monument?

Want to know more about where mines like this would be? See the impact on Coaster Brook Trout.

It seems that, in their haste to push the permits through in the absence of a director for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Kennecott conveniently forgot several factors which will eventually render the permits void.

1. Mining experts for the NWF and for the DEQ agreed that the February 2006 application was not acceptable.

If you have trouble believing that just read the one-page Executive Summary of Sainsbury’s report, which was suppressed by the DEQ, and has now been restored to their site, but has subsequently been ignored.

The application should have been rejected almost four years ago.

2. The “Mining Team” at the DEQ is not qualified to evaluate a technical mining application, having no applicable expertise or experience. They admitted as much in court. All permits granted should therefore be revoked. We could test their level of expertise in public if that would please them. A full hour on TV?

3. The Team admitted no familiarity with the law as it pertains to applications for a permit to mine, and

illustrated that point by not requiring the applicant to actually demonstrate that their planned activities would perform as claimed. The pertinent Part 632 is available on the DEQ site and it is not very difficult to read and understand. They should have done that.

So don’t get excited yet. Don’t start your engines. And don’t harm a single tree in sight of Eagle Rock, the place of worship – which is protected by the law.

Thank you for your attention.

Jack Parker

Baltic

As a kid, you couldn’t drag me out of science class for almost anything. So here goes.

Sulfuric acid is a water soluble (that means it can be dissolved in water). Industrially, you’ll find it in things like traditional car batteries. Because it likes water so much, you’re not going to find it in its’ pure state naturally. You will find it, however, in a natural state on the planet Venus (and that’s not a very pleasant place to try live).

It’s also used to clean electronics parts.

But part of its’ usefulness in a controlled industrial setting (it’s very corrosive) is why it is so darn dangerous in nature, and in mining situations, it almost always leaks out.

Sulfuric acid can burn you worse than hydrochloric acid, and in fact, the contact burns can be very bad as it also dries out the skin as it eats it away. In the lower concentrations found in Acid Mine Drainage, created by sulfide mining, it causes a litany of problems including cancer and spinal cord damage.. as well as make the water so acidic that wildlife cannot live there anymore, literally creating “dead spots.”

The Council represents over 70 organizations (partial list here) to promote policies that ensure that Michigan families will enjoy clear waters, clean beaches, beautiful landscapes and healthy communities for years to come.

The MEC Board of Directors on December 11th, 2009 decided to take a stand to strengthen protections for Michigan waters from the dangers of sulfide and uranium mining. If your organization is interested in endorsing MiWater, head on over to the endorsement page.

“I want to work in a place where the government listens to citizens and where medical opinions are respected,” said Bruno Imbeault, a pulmonologist at the Centre Hospitalier et des Services Sociaux de Sept Îles.  The doctors who have signed this moratorium are worried of the ill effects of uranium mining, mainly the contamination of air and water.  This contamination could cause higher numbers of lung cancer in the population around the mine site.

Too many people, including some in our state government, are blighted by tunnel vision.  We need to be able to get out of the tunnel and look at every aspect of this potential “opportunity.”

Did you know that while mining may create some short-term jobs, one of the companies interested in doing sulfide mining in the UP use robots for most of their sites around the world.

How many jobs would they actually create, not to mention what would the educational requirements be for these jobs? The fact is new technology has been developed in the mining industry to decrease man power and mining companies are opting for robots. Robots that can only be operated by highly skilled technicians who do not come from and may not even have to be in Michigan.

One mining company, Rio Tinto, has already started using robots in its mines throughout the world.  Rio Tinto is looking at putting the same robots in Michigan along the priceless Menominee River that feeds into Lake Michigan.

A few of the “sci-fi becomes reality” snippets from the June 2009 Rio Tinto Review:

• The giant and driverless Komatsu 930E-4 electric truck which hauls 285 tons of ore in a single load. These trucks go to “school” to learn the terrain.
• A remote jackhammer crushes rock faster and better than usual with the Perth operator a quarter of a continent away
• Operators now load trains (which are also driverless) remotely

The reason for the robotics in mining is simple; it cuts the bottom line for companies.  According to John McGagh, Rio Tinto’s head of innovation, “ in challenging [economic] times, mine automation makes better economic sense than ever.” By using the robots they can employ far fewer people.  There will be some jobs but as McGagh explains those who get them will need advanced degrees.. ‘the miner’ of the future may well be metropolitan based, with a higher degree in mechatronics, supercomputing or artificial intelligence.”

Is sacrificing our health and that of our children worth the risks of such short term and short sighted economic gain?

Satellite image courtesy of NASA via Circle of Blue

“Groundwater, surface water, Great Lakes water—these are public resources that should be protected in the future,” Scripps said. “If an individual uses resources to the extent that they’re put in jeopardy, there should be a legal framework to protect them.” — MI State Representative Dan Scripps

Our effort is aimed squarely at protecting water from the documented dangers posed by sulfide and uranium mining.

See story in Circle of Blue regarding fixing loopholes in the Great Lakes Compact.

It turns out, after testing, that there’s levels of pollutants 2-10 times the health standard limit in the wells near this mine in Nevada. Although not in this state, we don’t want that to happen to us. Obviously, this is part of what we’re fighting for – to protect our most valuable resource for generations and prevent millions in necessary spending (usually paid for by us, the taxpayer) for cleanup down the line.

More after the jump.