I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) is again warning that the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. has not taken necessary steps to assure that its planned U.P. nickel sulfide mine will operate safely.
In a July 15 letter to the editor of the Iron Mountain Daily News, Stupak warned that because Michigan law does not require evaluation of pre-existing environmental conditions around the mine it will be difficult to prove that Kennecott is responsible for damages.
Without an Environmental Impact Statement and independent baseline hydrological and geological studies it will be very difficult to prove that the Kennecott mine is the source of any new pollution that occurs once operations begin. I am also not confident that a $17 million assurance bond will be enough to cover all potential environmental damage and contamination from the Kennecott mine. It is not uncommon for environmental remediation costs to end up being significantly higher than originally planned for.
Stupak also warned that — contrary to claims by Kennecott — a similar mine operated by the company in northern Wisconsin resulted in heavy metal pollution of the watershed.
The fact is that sulfide mining is prone to pollution and very difficult to clean. Studies have shown high levels of toxic heavy metals downriver from the former Kennecott Flambeau mine in Ladysmith, Wis., and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that at least 40 percent of the headwater streams in western watersheds are contaminated where similar mining is occurring in states like Colorado and New Mexico. These scenarios must be prevented from occurring in the Yellow Dog River and our Great Lakes.
The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council is threatening to sue Kennecott and the state Dept. of Natural Resources for failing to prevent pollution at the Flambeau mine.
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