To the Journal Editor:

It was with surprise I read that Dan Wyant, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is in town for a regional tour.

Given our mutual interest in Michigan’s environmental quality, I’d like to extend an invitation to Mr. Wyant to tour the Yellow Dog Plains where the Marquette County Road Commission is pushing through a massive 55 mph highway to the gates of the Eagle Mine under the guise of “improvements” to previously-scenic, tree-covered roadways of the Triple A and Marquette County Road 510.

The road construction has been piecemeal and hasty. No environmental impact assessment of the haul road was conducted – and already a spring has ruptured due to the mass-bulldozing of a hillside, sending massive quantities of silt and mud into one of Marquette County’s favorite fishing streams, the Salmon Trout River, and connected wetlands.

I’d always feared that Eagle Mine’s heavy metals and acid mine drainage would pollute the waterways, but it appears that reckless, improperly-permitted road construction is wrecking the water quality first.

Surely he wouldn’t want to miss this critical stop on his public relations tour. Mr. Wyant can reach me at 906-662-9987 or by writing president@savethewildup.org.

Kathleen Heideman, president

Save the Wild U.P.