Saturday, June 2, 2007 Robert Imrie Associated Press
Environmental
groups and an Indian tribe said Friday that a new agreement with a
mining company shows that its former open pit copper mine south of
Ladysmith has not been entirely reclaimed 10 years after the mine
closed.
"This is not a victory for the mining company. This is an
agreement that commits the mining company to address toxic pollution,"
said Melissa Scanlan of Midwest Environmental Advocates Inc. and
attorney for the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa band. "Now they have a
lot more work to do."
Flambeau Mining Co. said Thursday that it
reached the regulatory agreement that says most of its former mine has
been restored to its natural state without environmental harm.
The company agreed to withdraw its request from the state Department of
Natural Resources for a so-called certificate of completion for a
portion of the site - the 32 acres called the industrial outlot - to
conduct additional monitoring of things like surface water and the
nearby Flambeau River for five years, said Jana Murphy, Flambeau
Mining's environmental manager.
The agreement calls for the company to also do more reclamation work at
the outlot, which once included administration buildings and an area
where ore was loaded onto railroad cars for shipment to Canada for
processing. As recently as a year ago, some "elevated metallic
concentrations" were discovered in runoff water in the area, the DNR
said.
The rest of the mine site, which was on a total of about 150 acres, now may revert to long-term care, Murphy said.
The agreement came during a regulatory hearing in which some groups opposed issuing the certificate of completion.
The agreement gives those groups, including the Chippewa Tribe, Sierra
Club, Northern Thunder, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and Rusk
County Community Action Group, until June 13 to ratify the agreement.
Scanlan said the tribe's governing body is to meet Monday to consider the deal.
Flambeau Mining, a subsidiary of Utah-based Kennecott Minerals Co. and
British mining giant Rio Tinto, opened the Ladysmith mine in 1993 and
hauled away ore containing more than $500 million worth of copper, gold
and silver until 1997, when reclamation began.
The mine, located
about 120 miles northwest of Wausau, was the first metallic mine to
open in the state in decades and the first under a comprehensive new
law to regulate the industry. The site attracted hundreds of protesters
during various demonstrations to oppose it, warning it would pollute
the Flambeau River.
The mine site, which included the 32-acre
open pit that reached a depth of 225 feet in places, is now a
recreation and nature area for such things as hiking, bird watching and
horseback riding. The company said it spent $20 million filling in the
pit and reclaiming the site.
Glenn Stoddard, an attorney for the
Sierra Club and Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, said the
agreement reached Thursday was a "major victory" for environmental
groups fighting for clean water in Wisconsin.
"It clearly
provides that the mine has not been fully reclaimed, contrary to what
Flambeau Mining asserted," he said. "The additional monitoring will be
very important going forward."
According to the agreement,
Flambeau Mining will monitor sediments in soils, a stream and the
Flambeau River and will sample crayfish and walleye in the Flambeau
River, both above and below the mine site, for evidence of harmful
metallic substances in their tissues.
The mining company must wait at least three years before seeking the certificate of completion for the industrial outlot.
Philip Fauble, the DNR's mining program coordinator, called the latest
development "just another step" in the long process of the aftermath of
the mine. "It allows us to move forward with the continued long term
care," he said.
Dave Blouin of the Sierra Club said the
negotiations between the longtime adversaries were "surprisingly
collegial. To our minds, this agreement goes farther than what we could
have gotten had we completed the hearing because we got additional
monitoring, five years of additional monitoring."
The agreement
allows the security bond that Flambeau Mining posted to protect
taxpayers from having to pay for the reclamation work to be reduced
from $11 million to $2 million, with the lower amount required for care
for another 20 years.
