No taxpayer cash for mine waste
To the Journal editor:
Sometimes I have conversations about mining with people who tell me, ‘mining is our heritage in the Upper Peninsula; we’ve been doing it forever.
I counter, saying Lake Superior is our heritage. It’s what connects Yoopers and visitors to this land, and it has sustained our lives and ecosystems by providing us with clean water for generations. Lake Superior’s gifts will last longer than any of mining’s supposed benefits.
We only have one Lake Superior. As the majestic body of water that unites all of us, one might think it wouldn’t be a controversial take to prioritize keeping Lake Superior clean, safe and public.
However, those pushing the Copperwood Mine, and trying to leverage our Michigan taxpayer money to do it, must see it differently than me and the 350,000+ people who’ve signed a Change.org petition opposing the Copperwood Mine.
On Wednesday, the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee voted to pass all the funding pieces being requested at the end of this session, EXCEPT for the controversial $50 million
dollar grant to Copperwood!
Copperwood is a proposed copper sulfide mine directly on the shore of Lake Superior at the westernmost point of Porcupine Mountains State Park, near the Presque Isle Scenic Area. Only 1.5% of what they pull out of the ground would be copper, while the other 98.5% will be toxic mine waste.
They plan to store that waste in a 323-acre tailings pond 2 miles from Lake Superior’s shore, which is only designed to withstand the intensity of 1-in-100 year storm events; however, there have been two 1-in-1000 year storm events in the last decade in the immediate surrounding area.
If this tailings dam is built, it will most likely collapse, and when it does, our Lake Superior will be exposed to tons of mine waste within minutes.
Regarding the economic impact of the mine: Copperwood claims it will create 380 jobs. Many local folks support the mine because they think they or their children will be able to get jobs there.
However, the grant text specifies that a “new job” would be defined as “lasting for at least six months,” with many positions going to “specialized non-residents,” and indeed, the text says explicitly that the project hopes to coincide with the closure of Eagle Mine, so that many skilled jobs could be transferred over from another county. That doesn’t leave much room for jobs to go to area residents. Also, in 89% cases, the boom-and-bust nature of copper mining maintains a cycle of poverty in the communities it affects.
The Canadian company pushing the Copperwood Mine has been asking the State of Michigan for a $50 million dollar grant in taxpayer money to help finance the mine. While the grant was approved by the non-elected Michigan Strategic Fund, it must also be approved by the Michigan House and Senate Appropriations Committees to be added to the state budget. Thanks to outreach efforts by advocates in the Protect the Porkies coalition, the grant stalled in the Senate in June, but was reintroduced during the current “lame-duck” period. The House passed it last week, tied to other completely unrelated funding. However, after significant public pushback, the Senate blocked it this week, passing all the other funding pieces separately and not even mentioning Copperwood.
This is a cause for celebration! If the Copperwood Mine wants its chance to pollute our Lake and harm our communities, it will have to do so without our taxpayer money.