Protect Michigan's Waters - Speak out at metallic sulfide mining hearings in September!
Written comment period ends October 17, 2007
Please inform yourself about the negative effects of sulfide mining on Michigan's resources. You can find information on this issue and others on the website of
In the next two weeks, Michigan citizens have a critical opportunity to stop metallic sulfide mining in our state, and protect untold acres of habitat and waters from future environmental and economic devastation from acid drainage that would result. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is holding hearings on a Permit Application for Kennecott for a proposed sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. The hearings will take place in the Upper Peninsula and in Lansing. CACC has posted a link to an alert from Save the Wild U.P., at the bottom of this page, which lists the hearings, along with key issues and further resources.
Save the Wild U.P. is a non-profit Upper Peninsula group, whose members have taken the lead in opposing metallic sulfide mining in Michigan. CACC encourages all persons residing in our beautiful, blue-water state to attend these hearings and voice your opposition to this very near-sighted plan, which has the capability of destroying the viability of our waters and land in any area where this mining would occur, now or in the future.
If our waters and land are devastated, then what legacy is left for our children, our grandchildren? Our lives and communities are intimately tied to the health of our waters and land. Drinking water, agriculture, fisheries, tourism, clean beaches for recreation, and our very lives depend on clean water and land that will support life. The Great Lakes Basin already struggles with waters, beaches, and land areas that are contaminated with persistent toxins. Acid drainage from metallic sulfide mining would add greatly to this burden.
Nor is this simply an Upper Peninsula problem. The mid-continental rift, the main source of sulfide ores embedded with metals (i.e. copper, nickel, uranium, gold etc.), angles south and then east through the center of the lower peninsula. Potential metallic sulfide mining with acid drainage is an issue affecting a large area in Michigan.
CACC calls on all citizens who would like to see a Great Lakes Basin that is capable of supporting healthy life for many generations into the future, to inform yourself on the issues of metallic sulfide mining, (see Save the Wild U.P.'s alert and website posted below), attend these hearings if at all possible, and/or to write letters to the Michigan DEQ strongly opposing this environmentally devastating form of mining, that has never been used in Michigan before, and has caused environmental and economic ruin worldwide, where it has been used.
Save the Wild U.P.'s Alert is posted here.
For further information see Save the Wild UP.