Send your Email to Ann.Coakley@wisconsin.gov - Ms. Coakley Ann Coakley, is the Director of the DNR Bureau of Waste & Materials Management, will be instrumental in deciding if GTac's request to begin taking bore samples is permitted or denied. Feel free to glean thoughts or ideas presented below. DNR is required by the new mining law to respond within 10 days and the clock is running. There are only a few days left for you to contact Ms Coakley and she has been responding to all the letters, Emails, and pone calls. Ann's phone number is 608) 516-2492. Thank you for joining us as we work to protect the water.
"I know the application before you is just the start of a long and drawn out process but it's a start towards eventually harming the last place on earth with fresh and abundant clean water. If you consider the GTac application in the context of potential harm to a Last Place, a place that can never be restored back to it's previous, relatively unsullied state, I hope you would choose to slow the process down and do your part to be a fierce and stalwart steward to one of the world's most precious resources."
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"Request the DNR to hold off on GTAC test borings' permit until there is a plan to deal with waste water, debris and other harmful environmental effects that are a major concern for residents living in the Bad River Watershed."
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"Many of our people have turned away from nature and hard work. They do not value Tyler Forks or Lake Superior. Even those who represent us admit to not reading the lease with the mining company before signing it over at a bargain rate to be used as for a dump site. They accept and repeat over-simplified phrases from the mining company such as, "They'll dig a hole, put the rock in a pile, then round it out so it looks nice. Then the next mine hole waste will go in the first hole and the last hole will be a lake." I have heard this from many people. This is not sound scientific thinking and does not represent truth or the desires of many Iron County people. Nor does it align with our Iron County policies, state policies regarding the environment, or with laws regulating the waters that flow into Lake Superior. To fence in and then blow up an area teeming with natural resources is short-sighted."
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"May 14, 2013 (This letter was submitted by Marc D. Fink and Marc has given permission to use is his points as needed.)
Ann Coakley, Bureau Director
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
107 Sutliff Avenue
Rhinelander, WI 54501 Ann.Coakley@wisconsin.gov
RE: Gogebic Taconite’s May 9, 2013 Exploration Application
Dear Ms. Coakley,
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity. The
Center is a non-profit, public interest, conservation organization with a number of offices across the county including an office in Duluth, Minnesota. The Center represents more than 500,000 members and supporters nationwide dedicated to the conservation and recovery of species at-risk of extinction and their habitats.
The DNR is in an unenviable position in reviewing Gogebic’s May 9, 2013 exploration application. On the one hand, DNR has already determined that permits to prospect should at least be reviewed under an environmental assessment (NR 150.03, 150.20); DNR knows that this exploration proposal is directly related and connected to Gogebic’s well-known intent to mine which will result in severe cumulative impacts on the environment; DNR also knows that this mine proposal is extremely controversial due to its proximity to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indian Reservation, its likely impacts to nearby outstanding resource waters, trout streams, and high quality wetlands; and its close proximity to Lake Superior; and DNR is directed to deny an application for an exploration license if the agency finds that the exploration will have a substantial and irreparable adverse impact on the environment or present a substantial risk of injury to public health and welfare, Wis. Stat. § 295.44(4)(e).
On the other hand, DNR is directed to either issue the exploration license or provide notice of its intent not to issue the license within 10 business days of receiving a complete application, Wis. Stat. § 295.44(4)(a), and is no longer required to prepare an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment for an application for an exploration license, Wis. Stat. § 295.44(13).
Gogebic’s exploration application and its related intent to mine in this same region raise numerous important issues concerning potential impacts to surface and groundwater, wetlands, and other resources that must be carefully analyzed and considered, which are raised in the application itself as well as other comments that have been submitted on this proposal.
Based on DNR’s past practices and the number and substance of the submitted comments on this proposal, there is no rational way that DNR can determine within 10 business days, without first preparing any sort of environmental review, that this proposal will not result in substantial and irreparable adverse environmental impacts, and will not present a substantial risk of injury to public health and welfare. Because DNR must deny an application if such impacts or risk may occur, Wis. Stat. § 295.44(4)(e), DNR must notify the applicant of its intent not to issue the exploration license until the agency has had the opportunity to conduct and reasonably consider the necessary environmental analysis and review of this proposal, Wis. Stat. § 295.44(4)(f).
Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments, and please add me to the mailing list and keep me informed of any developments concerning this proposal."
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"What you do now will far-reaching implications on the waters and life of this entire region including Lake Superior forever. Think clearly. Think for the future. Think for the water. "
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