Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

Don’t believe Bill Williams or Sen. Tom Tiffany. It wasn’t the EPA but the company’s lack of homework that killed this project.

Sen. Tom Tiffany asserts that mining can be done in an environmentally-safe manner and blames the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Gogebic Taconite, or GTac, pulling the plug on its proposed iron mine upstream from Lake Superior. This interpretation is misleading on several counts.

Tiffany asserts that “iron mining is a more benign process than sulfide mining” ignoring the fact that every operating taconite (low-grade iron ore) mine and mill in Minnesota and Michigan are recent chronic polluters, according to a 2012 study by the Sierra Club.

The iron mining bill introduced by Tiffany was portrayed by supporters as protective of the environment despite the language of the bill that stated that “significant adverse impacts” to the environment and water were assumed to be necessary. This included the extensive destruction of wetlands that filter the water that flows into Lake Superior, feeds the wild rice beds of the Bad River Ojibwe tribe and provides drinking water for the city of Ashland and nearby towns.

Both Tiffany and GTac president Bill Williams cited the uncertainty about whether the mine would be permitted as a reason for the pullout. However, according to the law — which was largely written by GTac — no such assurance is possible until the company conducts the scientific studies that are necessary to determine whether the proposed mine would meet the requirements of the law.

But the company never collected the data to find out how the mine would affect groundwater around the mine site. And they were surprised when their consultants found much more extensive wetlands than they expected to find at the mine site.

If GTac had listened to what local citizens were saying about the wetlands or to the independent hydrogeologist employed by the Bad River Ojibwe tribe, this would not have been a surprise. Instead, the company threatened legal action to prevent the tribe’s expert from identifying wetland areas at the mine site.

The other reason for GTac’s pullout, according to Tiffany, was a concern that the EPA would veto the company’s mine plan, as the EPA had recommended in the case of the Pebble gold and copper mine in Alaska. But the EPA expressly stated that it would not be taking action on the GTac project as it had done in the case of the Pebble mine.

While GTac’s concern with an EPA veto of the project was unfounded, Bill Williams had legitimate cause for concern because the actions of his company demonstrated that GTac could not be trusted to disclose the unacceptable risks of this ill-conceived project. In 2014, the company objected to a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources research document that listed some of the major environmental hazards of mining, including acid mine drainage, mercury contamination, and the fact that “six watersheds with a total surface area of 1300 square miles transect the Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and drain to Lake Superior.”

GTac spokesperson Bob Seitz objected to the report as mere protest rhetoric and accused DNR regulators of “overstepping their regulatory authority.” GTac’s dismissal of a scientific report as environmental protest rhetoric goes against the Wisconsin tradition of common sense oversight of projects that can affect our drinking water, trout streams, wild rice beds, human health and Lake Superior itself.

In other words, GTac failed to secure a social license to operate this mine by ignoring objections from concerned citizens, tribes, environmental groups and local governments. Without a social license the project was not viable.

Originally published by the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.