Court will consider whether state violated public trust by leasing land to mining company

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Paula Manderfield has agreed to hear arguments about whether the state violated its public trust responsibility when the Department of Natural Resources agreed to lease 120 acres near Lake Superior to the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. for mining activities.

Kennecott, a subsidiary of the global mining corporation Rio Tinto, has planned a nickel sulfide mine on the Yellow Dog Plain northwest of Marquette. In February the company announced it had put development of the mine on hold due to weakening global demand for metals.

In a statement, the National Wildlife Federation wrote that it has identified publicly-owned resources at stake in the land lease. The group argues that according to the Public Trust Doctrine, the common-law doctrine of property rights, “the MDNR is responsible for holding and managing public resources for the good of the public, maintaining public access whenever possible and protecting the resources for existing uses.”

NWF, together with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Yellow Dog Watershed Reserve and the Huron Mountain Club, claims that under the lease granted by the MDNR:

Eagle Rock, a Tribal Cultural Property, would be blasted apart, opening a portal to major excavation beneath a premier Lake Superior tributary and trout stream, the Salmon Trout River;

Unmonitored water of an unknown quality would be released directly to surface and ground water through waste water retention ponds;

Waste water would be discharged directly into ground water and would eventually reach surface water including the Salmon Trout River and potentially the Yellow Dog River — where the water quality would be unmonitored and unknown;

The rock storage pile will generate highly acidic and metal-laden water;

Three diesel generators and mine exhaust fans will spread metal particulate matter over State and private lands and surface water

In an order issued April 16, Manderfield wrote that she had mistakenly dismissed the public trust argument in March and she set a new hearing on the matter for June 10.