Tension between DNR, mining company may indicate more conflict to come

[hue]

http://journaltimes.com/news/local/environment/d84d5687-72d5-5221-a293-4d4eb6711120.html

Tensions between the Gogebic Taconite mining company and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rose to new heights last week in a public dispute over how much regulatory authority remains in the agency’s hands under a 2013 law that rolled back environmental restrictions to make iron mining easier.

The company objected to a DNR research document that listed environmental hazards of mining, and it has sharply criticized the extent of agency questions about plans to dig up rock for testing.

But the dispute over what is allowed and what isn’t under the untested mining law may be a preview of what is to come when the company seeks state permission for an open pit mine that would stretch 4 1/2 miles long and 800 feet deep in the forested hills of Iron and Ashland counties.

“All of the tests and modeling we’ve done cost money,” said company spokesman Bob Seitz. “(Some studies cost) tens of thousands of dollars a crack. So this should be about what’s necessary and not what’s wanted to satisfy curiosity.”

DNR officials said they were a little puzzled by a strongly worded letter the company wrote saying the agency was going too far, but they will continue to ask questions that need asking to ensure that the environment is protected and to provide information to the public...
...Sen. Bob Jauch, a Democrat whose district includes the mine site, said the company is using “bullying” tactics.

“It isn’t the DNR’s fault that Gogebic wrote their first application in crayon and didn’t hire consultants until after filing it,” said Jauch, referring to the company’s original bulk sampling plan.

Gogebic Taconite’s tough tone will backfire if the DNR is forced to deny the company’s final mining permit because the company fails to provide needed data within the new law’s tightened timeline for decision by the state, Jauch said.

[riversedge]

1. I really wonder if the DNR will

have the guts to deny the permit.


..........Gogebic Taconite’s tough tone will backfire if the DNR is forced to deny the company’s final mining permit because the company fails to provide needed data within the new law’s tightened timeline for decision by the state, Jauch said.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I think that would provoke a "housecleaning" at the DNR

& a wholesale replacement of professionals with Walker hacks.

[mojowork_n]

3. I am gobstruck by the meanness in that quote.

In both senses of the word, with the gaudy display of their cheap-and-tightfisted-with-a-nickle sense of civic responsibility, and in the complete indifference to any consequences for their actions that (preliminary evidence reveals) could cause wide-scale harm to others, and massive damage to the local environment:

“All of the tests and modeling we’ve done cost money,” said company spokesman Bob Seitz. “(Some studies cost) tens of thousands of dollars a crack. So this should be about what’s necessary and not what’s wanted to satisfy curiosity.”