Decision expected on EPA permit for Kennecott mine

InsideEPA.com is reporting that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to make an announcement soon on whether it will require the Kennecott mining company to get a federal permit for its waste water system.

In March Kennecott, which is planning on discharging more that 500,000 gallons of waste water each day at its planned Upper Peninsula nickel mine, announced that it had modified its water system in a way that eliminated the need for a federal permit. The company then began clearing land to build the mine.

Locals, including members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which retains hunting, gathering and ceremonial rights to the land where the mine is planned, have protested the company’s decision to begin construction without a federal water permit.

EPA is nearing a decision on whether discharges from a proposed Michigan mine must be permitted under the federal underground injection control (UIC) program, a decision that industry sources say could set a precedent requiring non-hazardous discharges from scores of other facilities — including wastewater, energy, mining and others that use above-ground discharges — to seek first-time permits.

“It would be such a massive expansion of the UIC program to things that it has never been applied to before,” one industry source says of the possibility that EPA may require a permit.

An EPA region 5 spokesman Karen Thompson said she could not say when a decision on the permit matter would be announced but confirmed that EPA officials had toured the planned mine site last week and met with area tribal leaders.