Love all of these people who have moved up here to the U.P and whining and crying over something they know nothing about.
They come up here to OUR U.P and try to make it into their little playground and what they envisioned when they were in the Cities. Guess what? Yoopers could care less about you and you're not Yoopers anyway, even though you may have been here a few years.
These Idiot groups from Marquette have to go to classes to learn how to behave and they had no Clue what Sulfide mining even was but it sounded bad so they had to be against it.
And this NWF is a real piece of work(Yoopers who hunt or fish maybe be members of them without even knowing it because the MUCC is just a Michigan Chapter of the NWF) who turned White Pine into pretty much of a Ghost Town.
Hey Cliff workers-ever notice that these clowns never come after you? It's because they know what would happen if they did.
Now it's time for your workers to stick up for Kennecott-You're next on their list
PS-I don't have a dog in this fight-I'm not a miner but I am a 100% Yooper.
Time to drive these people out

Hearing about this mine kinda makes me sick to my stomack. It hurts to know that beautiful, pristine, untouched land will now be destroyed. Also what for?Money. It is all about money. If you don’t believe me, ask CCI.It’s a barren wasteland of pink tailings as far as the eye can see. Ut looks like another planet to me.

As a new U.P. land owner, I have read your comments with concern as I try to educate myself with the very complex issues that surround UP's mineral resources. A few thought's for you to consider:
This type of mineral interest and activity is only going to grow with the rapidly expanding infrastucture needs of countries exploding with growth throughout the world.
As commodity prices rise, so will the interest in your mineral deposits - simple math.
In reality, these changes have only just begun. Maybe you shouldn't be the "first on your block" to sell out. As the need grows, so will the value of your lands. And of course with the passage of time, ever more efficient methods of mining and pollution control will be developed AND demanded.
As my former college economics professor instucted us, "A country's greatest natural resource is it's people". Obviously your minerals have value, but it's people that dictate that value and from the sounds of most of your comments, the price is not high enough to account for the issues mentioned.
My advice, call your congressmen. They are there to serve you.

Joe
Chicago/Matchwood

I have zero to do with the mines, thank you, I am just a well-informed, lifelong area resident. Are those tailings basins supposed to be a secret?

Just wondering if the angry person from neg. is working or retired from CCI? Maybe they would like to read your comment at the next union meeting.

Hearing about this mine makes me sick to my stomach. It hurts to know that beautiful, pristine, untouched lands will be destroyed. And for what? MONEY. It is all about MONEY. If you don't believe me, ask CCI. Ask the homeowners they bought out south of Palmer what they did with their land. It's a barren wasteland of pink tailings as far as the eye can see. It looks like another planet. Get on Google Earth and check out the land south of Palmer. Those giant pink sludge pits are pretty from the air, aren't they? They're even prettier up close. All of these mining industry giants put the DNR, DEQ, and whoever else they need to in their back pocket by buying them. I am tired of watching corporations with fat wallets getting away with murder because they can afford to. How can the state sit back and ignore things like angry citizens stopping a pro-mining meeting? Let's stop this before the UP is just another mining locale.

Sadly, both sides have it right. Of course there is going to be some nasty pollution. Ever look at aerial photographs of nickel mines? The land is orange, yellow, and brown for a good distance surrounding it. Ask Al Gore, he (nature lover that he is) had a nickel mine on or near a piece of his own property.... and made a profit off of it too, are you surprised? I saw an aerial photograph of it years ago....gross!
However at the same time how is a person going to be able to earn the money to enjoy the great outdoors we have if there are no mines or other gainful employment here? It costs money to own land, it costs money to buy the hunting gear, license, etc... Flipping burgers isn't going to cut it. Let's see YOU try to support a family of 5 on a burger flipping job. And remember, those jobs aren't even full-time so you'd better get a second job on top of that! AND your spouse and older kids had better work too. And that STILL won't pay the bills.
So yes, anyone who comes here after making their money elsewhere has all sorts of room to talk, don't they? And aren't these the same people who rent/own the expensive condominiums that are being built near lower harbor park and other prime UP locations? Come on! What average Yooper can afford to own/rent something like that? Very few, if any. And certainly not on a burger flipping job.
So it's a catch 22 and we're danged if we do have mining, we're danged if we don't. Either way it's a lose-lose situation. Sure, the mine won't be operating here long and the profits won't be much in the long run for anyone who works there. It's a short term investment for the employees, and a long term disaster for the residents of Marquette County and the rest of the U.P who will have to hear about the cleanup for the next several generations. But....what else would you have the people up here do?? Life is short and people need to feed their families how and when they can until the next opportunity comes along. Do you blame us for it? You'd do the same thing if it were you walking in our moccassins.
And what ignorance would make anyone think that we're all a bunch of hicks who would be satisfied living in a rustic abode without the amenities or the wherewithall to feed, clothe and educate our kids? Do you honestly think that we aren't entitled to better? Honestly, if that's how someone views people from the U.P then perhaps they best pack their bags and leave before their bags get packed for them.

I'm not afraid to put my family's name to my comments. We've now been in the UP for six generations, since the 1850's. Both sides of the family. And most of the in-laws, too. These folks included miners and lumbermen, including several ethnic groups; and their spouses, my great-great grandfathers/mothers. (One thing about the UP--know your neighbors, because when the heavy snows and cold descend upon us, be sure they will come to your aid!--and most of us are cousins or in-laws..!) They came here a long time ago, and had a really hard time surviving; some were maimed in the mines and the woods, too. I'm very proud to be at least a genetic part of those who survived.
I love the UP. It's been through alot, and took a lot of effort--(excuse me, I'm crying just writing this--and I'm sixty-seven!). Hopefully, we have learned the natural resource mistakes of that past. We don't need to make them again.
I don't want to see the UP go under. It's one of the last places in America that still has a natural sense of what it was...not so long a time ago. We are fortunate to have this much still left to use carefully and save it.
I really believe we need to preserve it for those who follow us here. (Probably, in ten years, I'll be gone...)
We were fortunate back then and even now--it was still a pretty vast; a "relatively resilient" natural place since a few decades ago...It had certainly taken its hits of earlier clearcutting of forests and mining operations...certainly the sometimes imperfect and ignorant practices based upon outsider stockholders' interests, in relation to their "instant monetary return gratification" back in NY, PA, MA and IL. Little thought was ever considered to sustainability and restoration of natural resources back in the 19th and early 20th century. Some of our earlier, nonrenewable resources are gone forever.
Our ancestors were the often overworked "mules" both in the forests and mines. (I know, at least two generations of my extended family paid those UP dues...), However, they did teach us the importance of hard work and family values; and sometimes the downside of such economic struggles as well. I began work full-time in summers at age 13, in Marquette. I'm not complaining. Like others, I appreciated having a job. I recall later, in trying to find a UP summer job in 1959, there was a steel strike that seriously affected the UP iron ore miners--folks with children--so I left, and hitchhiked from Mqt. to Boston, with 38 cents in my pocket--it took three days to get there--luckily I got a bunch of part-time jobs there, and went to Harvard Summer School and ran in a bunch of road races. ("Yooper ingenuity"--or just survival?..) Like anyone from the UP, you can sometimes need to leave to work, but then your love for it all brings you back. It brought me back again and again, sometimes for work, but mostly for family. It's what it was, back in the 1960's, 70's and '80's. We don't often get a chance to choose, particularly when you have a family to raise and happen to be living elsewhere. (Doesn't mean you don't want to be in the UP.) Nonetheless, real Yoopers don't want to just "shine it on," and say it doesn't matter what happens to the UP. We do care, and we're trying to preserve something worthwhile, whether we're present or not. We're not against sustainable resources' use and to provide good, steady jobs--that's why logging and most earlier, conventional iron ore mining was considered OK for the area. It wasn't perfect, given its overall ecological impacts, but it was "grandfathered in" to Marquette County, had some positive union, insurance and pension aspects for employees, etc. As time passed and the high grade iron ore diminished, at least CCI tried to maintain some new processes that re-used iron ore "waste" to get the most of their earlier mining efforts recycled and keep some people employed; timber/pulp companies re-planted trees and wised-up, too. We all lived with their modes and methods, as best we could. It wasn't always pretty, nor the "best practices"--but we all have hopefully evolved in that process. And it at least was under some control, common sense and accepted. (We can only really be judged "in our time.") I guess we are willing to acknowledge our past mistakes and try to improve upon them in regard to a greater, public good.
However, now I'm more than unsure about this present UP proposed mining situation. The whole aspect of the faceless, profits-driven and the poor environmental records of these foreign mining corporations now wanting to exploit our valuable UP resources and risking contamination of what is here-- and what negatives may be left behind--is a real concern and worthy of our skepticism. Let's not be "led down the garden path." Best to question their promises and ulterior motives. Let's not accept their "word" as a promise that needs to be believed. Let them prove it. And provide some real answers prior to getting our blessings....And some serious, regular scientific, objective monitoring to avoid pollution. Or be shut down before they destroy something which they may not have any real idea about its public resource value--which we understand to be of much more importance than just money in their pockets.

I am A REAL MAN with a MINING job and if you can find me a burger flipping job that pays $24.00 an Hour with full benefits I will sign up for it tomorrow

I absolutely agree with what Brian Berard has got to say. Hey, I came up to the Great North Woods because I had to get away from dusty, dirty, filthy city of Chicago for a while because, to put it lightly, quite depressing. So I shipped myself up to this great corner of America mainly to get a refreshing taste of a cleaner outdoorsman's paradise. Come on people! Let's get with it here why don't we. Listen: Marquette and its surrounding environment is one of the most pristine I have ever seen (I've been to over a dozen national parks) and it's amazing to see and hear that not only has this application been approved by a belly-up state environmental agencies, but also that I hear all this pish-posh about a few jobs here for a cuppla years. Yea, I doubt those eight years of mining will be enough to put your child through college barring you are not in-and-out of the hospital with chronic lung problems from the deadly sulfides. Did you know a sulfide mixed with oxygen makes sulfuric acid. Pretty cool, huh? But what's not so cool is what that stuff can do to yah. I got myself a second degree burn from the sulfuric acid in a chemistry class in high school. I'll tell ya, I ain't one that wants that stuff in my lungs... or my water. So think twice some of you Yoopers who are too proud to a flip a burger because you're not a "REAL MAN" with a "REAL JOB" unless you're a MINER. It's not that hard to find out that when you have nothing left to fish and nothing left to hunt because all of your major game has been killed you'll wonder why you chose the mine over the outdoorsmanship. If I knew what a Yooper was before I came up here, I'd say he was a rugged person who could fetch some food on the weekends by sporting an buck or bucket of fish. But now that i see that being a real man is being a miner, kind of makes me thinks its just unfortunate... kind of stupid. BTW... Cancun doesn't allow mining operations and it's almost paradise. Why let a good place as it is now go bad?

If this mine is so valuable, then the company should be willing to deposit 60 percent of what it mines, and put that money in an interest bearing account, to be held in abeyance during the time the mine exists. THEN if they do abandon us with a cleanup problem, we will have the funding to take care of the problem. Otherwise, if they take care of their share as approved, no spills, no disasters, they can have their money back. In the meantime, we can shut them down at anytime their operation exceeds acceptable risk or they are found in violation of the agreement. The money stays with us, they get the boot. Weve got it, they want it. Just how bad do they want it?

I guess the enviromentalist do not have any better thing to do but to ruin a god thing for everyone. Maybe that is there hobby? How about spending a little more time thinking about the good things instead of the bad things that nobody can prove will even happen.Just a little something to think about in your next meeting, P.S. mining is a good thing, at least for all the people that work for CCI,Railroad,Trucking companies, and retired people.

So lets say they mine for the "minerals" they are loo king for then clean-up and re-open the milling site they want, then it will only be a matter of time before the true impact shows it fulness. There is no such thing as no impact with uranium, especially if the mill it here. We won't be crying over the ruining of our prestine wilderness or eyesores etc... It will be over our dying children, mining workers and the contamination of our great lakes and wilderness here. It is a fact the dust created from milling Uranium can be carried by the wind 1000 miles in every direction. Gee would that reach Lansing? Would they care about us then? They don't have to liove here we do. Will it be worth it all in the end?

I don't see any well paid educated Upper Peninsula residents in the recreation/tourism industry having to work second jobs flipping burgers or changing bedsheets. Any person with common sense knows those aformentioned jobs tend to generally be entry level jobs and certainly don't represent the majority of available employment in the Upper Peninsula. Truth is, high paying jobs in the UP attract professionals due to the quality of the public lands and surrounding environment before Kennecott and other mining companies begin devastating our land.
Why is it on the issue of "Eagle Project" that the only opportunity for "real jobs" lies in Kennecott rescuing the poor people of the UP and providing great paying long term jobs for us poor starving souls? What a farce. Maybe you should do some research on the truth of Kennecott's local hiring practices and pay rate/treatment of their employees.
We never needed Kennecott before they started sticking holes all over our cherished, accessible public lands,and we'll do just fine without their handful of short term "jobs".

To Al Silfven: In addition to my wilderness fantasies as a young environmentalist running around the U.P., I helped out in the remediation of the Torch Lake Superfund site. I was far from forgetting our history...I was cleaning up the mess your generation and your parent's generation left behind. What Peggy Basham says is true. That area will never be what it was for thousands of years--perhaps longer. Superfund is a Federal program that, due to continuing budget shortfalls, will probably be non-existent in a decade or so if not sooner. The State of Michigan's Brownfield remediation funding is all but dried up as well. It helps to remember that while our history and culture were hugely based on mining, that doesn't make this project economically nor environmentally feasible. Who's gonna pay for the remediation when Rio Tinto is bought out by the Chinese or the Australians? Why would they care? It's very easy for a multi-national conglomerate to walk away from such a project without any reprimand at all. You can't just lump all types of mining into the same category and call it OK. A diamond mine is not a uranium mine, a sulfide mine is not an ore mine, and a copper mine is not an ore mine. If you are confused about how incredibly important the cleanliness of Lake Superior relates to the health of our people, I suggest you leave the U.P. to visit somewhere that has some serious water woes to fully appreciate the gem we have here.

This has become a real hot button subject, for good reason. Believe me, I am no environmentalist, however, I do love the great outdoors, I love fishing, hunting and camping out in the Yellow Dog Plains area. There are not too many places like this anymore in the country. We need to protect this area. There is a reason we call this "God's country". There is a reason Wisconsin said no to sulfide mining too. Maybe we should explore what can go wrong and what has gone wrong with other sulfide mines.

I guess Granholm sees the $$$ but not the environmental impact. She doesn't see the loss of tourism dollars from hunting, fishing, camping, etc... It's too bad, it's areas like this that made us move up here and many others. It will be the mines that make many lifelong yoopers move out because it won't be the same UP.

Granted we need jobs up here, but why something that could hurt out environment for years to come. Bring some manufacturing jobs back up here, there are plenty of empty factories up here.

ok i'm surprised some people (jim from calumet) think we should leave future generations mining jobs rather than tourism....very interesting. So lets tear up the ground for minerals and pollute the water we have just so future generations have a "real" job.

My understanding of your comment is that all those people from different states and countries that come here for the beauty and support our "not a real man's tourism" would rather come to see mines and dirty water?

People will always travel and we will always have tourism. SUSTAINABLE jobs are what we need for future generations, not 10 year temporary ones. As part of the future generation, I'm surprised you think I want a "reals man's job" at a mine rather than turning bedsheets or burgers.

It is actually pretty amazing to me, that even the folks for the mine have no idea what they are simply giving away. Kennecott takes away $15 BILLION or more of wealth and the state of Michigan gets maybe $70 Million? Please do the math, folks. Marquette will get even less, except for the loss of a sense of place and become polluted, too. This is a multi-national company, owned by a company selling out to the Chinese. C'mon, are the people for this mine really thinking? Minimally, if China must have its' ore, why not wait until, (if ever), it can be done completely clean AND give a fair share of the money to the state of Michigan, an entity that is after all, the people's trust. The metal gathers wealth the longer it stays in the ground. This mine (and others) is the most short-sighted, ill conceived, and criminal activity we do on this Earth. Without citizens showing concern, without opposition, does anyone think there would be any laws for these firms to follow, at all? Our country, the Earth, has been devastated by mining. Let us pay the true cost of getting these metals, protect the environment and human health.

Most of the previous comments on this issue indicate that the UP public and others mistrust the deceptive manuevers that have been foisted upon them
in the past week's RioTinto/Kennecott's and other "announcements"-- without the public's right to question or really review decisions that have already appear to have been made (between Alger-Delta, CCI Humbolt, DOT, etc.). The whole idea of honesty and transparency in RioTinto/Kennecott's plans and promises to Marquette County are now being legitimately questioned. Yes, part of American life is to protect our rights. This is what founded this country, and many lives have been sacrificed since 1776 to maintain these rights. We are now looking at Kennecott's real aspirations and expansion plans--along with three other foreign mining companies and now to include zinc, platinum, gold, uranium, copper and nickel--and at least 6 UP Counties.
We are looking at the use of public-owned land; have the neighboring landowner/taxpayers been heard? Not really. If we cannot trust Kennecott at this stage of the game, who knows what will happen in our immediate future?
Decisions reached at this time are crucial, and need to be reviewed before any more "done deals' are laid before us for our "input"...The problem with foreign corporations is that they really don't "have to listen" to the those of us who have a much greater stake in the potential outcome of these accelerated, metallic sulfide mining ideas (as yet unproven to be safe), while promising some questionable rewards--basically and relatively little money to the State, and some temporary, non-union jobs. If these corporations get their permits, it will be necessary to closely monitor their operations--and shut them down if their practices even begin to pollute our environment. And this is not only the mine sites--but the roadways and watersheds nearby as well.
It would be better if some other industrial and manufacturing ideas were pursued, like CCI's recent "Renewafuels" briquet ideas, using waste cellulose to substitute for some coal-burning. How about windpower farms on some of the open areas that once had mining sites in the UP? And good to see Negaunee is thinking solar to meet some of their electrical needs. Etc.
Recreational, outdoor tourism has also been very well developed in the UP during the past four decades; there is also a lot of support and volunteerism from the local public--and visitors have been impressed and they return here.
What the UP has is quickly disappearing from the rest of the USA. Let's not blow it!

Click on and readhttp://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/02/25/news/local/news04.txt

I grew up in the shadow of the Iron mines of Vulcan, Norway and Iron Mountain.. I see the hills caving in and the relics of mining structures slowly crumbling away. I have read about the sulfid mining operations proposed in Marquette and in Menomonee county.. Seems history is repeating them self, see back in the early 1900's i sure they told our parents about the jobs created in the local iron mines, And when the need for ore stopped so did the mines, my father was a miner, what did he get out of it a early grave with bad lungs from the ore dust. I am sure the story could be told from mining town to mining town accross the UP. They will pull out and our lands will never be right again.. I also did some reseach on sulfid mining and enviormental mishaps, and the cause and effect of breathing the dust from Up wind sources.. Before you go celibrating the 25 jobs created and before our rivers are running orange and lakes, AND before your children develop cancer. All you yea sayer's better educate yourself for the future. Kennecot will not be here, like Penn mining company was not here to help out the minning communities they distroyed.. Knowledge is power, I take my hat off to all those who do not support this mine, especially those who have stopped these people like our fellow americans in Wisconsin.. I support "Say no to the sulfid mines"

I use to work at the mill when the gold mine had it. I tested the water puddles outside where they dumped reclaim ore for over a year. It was dangerously high with certain chemicals, I also witnessed a lot of deer and other animals drinking that same water. One employee was shooting some deer for food. He is no longer with us. My health has gone downhill also.
Where do you think they dump there pond water. It was 7 feet above US41 level for awhile. Thank god the DNR let them dump it in the Escanaba river. Do I need to say more.

I sympathize with those of you concerned about the employment opportunities in the Upper Peninsula as well as the industry rich heritage of the U.P. The history of the U.P. is something in which citizens can take pride and there is so certainly no greater concern for a parent than the employment and welfare of their children. However, three things need to be pointed out.

First, the proposed mine will only employ less than a hundred local people and will only be open maybe eight years, at the most. Second, Rio Tinto (Kennecott Minerals) is not a Michigan corporation or even a United States corporation; the billions of dollars worth of profit they hope to get from our lands will be leaving Michigan forever. Third, the nickel which they hope to mine will not be sold to the U.S. as in the golden days of yore to strengthen our country. Today's nickel market is based in China. China, a state opposed to freedom of speech and religious freedom, an ally of North Korea, and a state which is backing our national debt. What American can honestly say that you want any more of our resources to go into strengthening China? There are better uses for our land and better employments for our children in this world. What parent wants their child to work in an occupation that degrades the quality of the land in which they live, the waters that they drink, the state in which they vote, and the government by and for the people which is supposed to protect them?

How can you criticize concerned citizens who took the time out of their daily lives to go to a meeting and stand up for the rights of representation and free-speech which hundreds of thousands of American soldiers in our history have died for? These people didn't hurt anyone and they may in fact be saving the freedom our men and women purchased so dearly. Remember, the day a government body of any level makes decisions without hearing all its people is the day our freedom dies. This is our government, which all of us run, and this is our land and our waters; do you really want to let a foreign corporation take care of our decision-making in our stead? I really doubt it.

While the sulfide ore body lies beneath the plains our public lands are free to use without fences or guards, our waters and fish are pure, and someday in the future, when hopefully we know better ways in which to mine, Michigan will still have that sulfide ore body as an option.

Corporations come and go, there is never a scarcity. God only made one Earth, one Upper Peninsula, one Lake Superior, one Yellow Dog Plains and they worth conserving and cherishing.

What do we leave our children? A tourist economy where they flip burgers and change bedsheets? Thats no job for a man. Real people need real jobs. Thats the best gift we can offer our future generations. This planet has survived everything so far and with Gods blessings will certainly survive a mill.

Yes, I live a long way from the proposed mine, but I grew up within 2 miles of a Superfund site. My health is probably OK… or at least I don’t know if I have been affected… or will be in the future. I suppose that someone checked the wells to make sure that my neighbors and I were not being poisoned… at some expense to someone. I’m pretty sure that someone made a lot of money using that land. I don’t know who…I think they must have moved away before I was born…I suppose they didn’t live there when the chemicals got dumped anyway. I wouldn’t know… I only knew that site as a barren piece of land where no one ever went. I suppose that at the time people figured; hey, that’s a business, they will provide jobs, we will collect taxes. I wonder if they made more money than we have spent on the clean up…or will spend in the future. I bet the man who sold the land made his money….and I’ll bet the owner of the company made his too. Who loses? The people whose children get sick? The people who can’t hunt of fish anymore because the game is either not there or contaminated to the point that it isn’t safe? The taxpayers who support the government agencies that must investigate these sites, do they pay? I guess the ones who pay are all the people who are foolish enough to stay after the damage has been done. Should we make our money doing that to others?

Kennecott has not provided answers about the environmental impacts of this project. If they had, their permits would not have been issued with stipulations. Kennecott cannot show examples of similar mines that have not resulted in severe environmental problems, because they have not accomplished it in the past. Will we be the ones that future generations will say were the ones who sold the yellow dog plains so that someone from out of state could get rich by turning it into a barren pile of tailings and a fishless ditch where a river once flowed? As for those people who disrupted the meeting I suppose they will not.

I believe we are all responsible to protect our most vital resource,Lake Superior and the entire great lakes watershed. It can never be replaced,ever. The watershed is fragile now and we cannot poison it further and must protect it all costs.Come north to the copper country and see the prior pillage. Torch Lake was a Superfund site. The color of the thick sediment is layer upon layer of purple to pink to green. Fish are not safe to eat. The cancer rate up here is higher.This water flows to Lake Superior. Looks at the miles of stamp sand on the eastern shore of the Keweenaw peninsula,strewn up in the Central mine area,dumped into Torch Lake all with absolutely no regard for the future,none, and absolutely no responsibility taken. Take the money and run. Mining companies did it, Henry Ford did it,Louisiana and Pacific did it.
So many times different parts of the entire U.P. have been ravaged with this get in,get out mentality and we simply must stand up and save what we have left. Last I heard,humans need water to live. Look at Georgia planning to sue Tennessee over the border for water rights. Is it going to come to that here? Look at what the Soviet Union has done to Lake Baikal. Let's be honest here and address the real issues. Financial gains by the mining corporations are huge and the true cost to our real future cannot be repaired.

Environmentalists go too far in their efforts to prevent economic development in the Upper Peninsula. Expressing ridiculous fears that the U.P. might become a world mining center is just one example. Most of them are probably too young and too engrossed in their wilderness fantasies to recognize that the Upper Peninsula was indeed once a major source of minerals for the industrialized world and it's mines were key industries providing raw materials for the 'arsenal of democracy' during WWII. We in the UP need jobs more than wilderness, but there is no reason we cannot have both, with a little restraint.

It is just ridiculous to be against the Power System upgrade. I view that as another one of the side benefits of the Eagle Mine.

The DEQ and the DNR have given there approval, let them move ahead.

Like another person said here, the opponents will not be happy until they get their way. Negotiations are not possible with the folks who scream at meetings as their tactic is disruption. It is sad when the company goes through all the legal hoops necessary yet they cannot go on with business - why would any business want to invest in the US if their legal application was overturned after the fact.

Public comment time is over, time to let them get on with their business. Besides, who cares how they are going to power the mine or if they make a new road...big deal. Did anybody really think that they could do the work without power?

If they have met the legal hurdles to do the work, let them get on with it. Public comment time is over - they are just being nice by letting anybody in on their meetings.

I feel the same way. everyone complains they cant get a good job around here and a place like this will be hiring a ton of people but we dont want it. we have how many thousands of acres of wilderness up here? give a little to get a little.

Michelle Halley - you are a true woman of courage! Thank you for being strong!
With Gratitude, Margaret Comfort "forever a Michigander" - join me in New Buffalo, MI on May 3rd, as we set out to walk (and talk and educate our way across this glorious state) to the Yellow Dog Plains. And just a thought:
Any one with a conscious and 1/2 a soul would condemn "domestic violence". Yet, is not "environmental violence" (the destruction of our home) one of the sickest and most cruelest forms of "domestic violence"?

When are the jobs going to come home to the US? to think that the UP is so stable in jobs is a lie. I grow tired of calling AT&T to get assistance with a problem, and I get a person who cannot speak english and who has no Idea that Michigan has 2 sections and not all of us live near Detroit. Remember that it was once said that the Alaskian pipe line would be bad for the enviroment, but look at it now, it has been proven that it has been helpful to the animals in the area, for shelter and warmth. at some point things will change, they always do.
Lets bring some jobs back to the UP, cause Lansing is not doing much to help us, we need to do it our selves

"Change will not be negotiated by governments,it can only be enforced by people." Arundhati Roy.

Rio Tinto's (Kennecott) activity around the globe is a strong testament to the correlation between the exploitation of land and the exploitation of people.

The hunger for profit and the dangers of handling large amounts of hazardous mining materials is becoming more and more apparent to people around the world, who are rising up against mining corporations.

Kennecott has employed strategies in Michigan to outmaneuver environmental policies and the inherent rights of indigenous and rural citizens to a healthy and safe environment.

Citizens' disruption of the CAG meeting symbolized that communities will no longer stand for Kennecott's and our government's unjust treatment of the local people. Kennecott has not allowed citizens to speak at Community Advisory Group meetings except during bathroom breaks.

As Mr. Parent pointed out,"Eventually, the company will weigh the cost and not proceed."

Mines have been stopped around the globe by ordinary citizens standing up for their rights to open lands and clean water.

True strength lies in our local citizens and we will fight peacefully and nonviolently until the Eagle Project is stopped.

Michigan, especially the U.P., has a tough time getting good paying jobs. When a company tries to work with the different environmental and regulatory groups to ensure the protection of the environment and creation of jobs, there are those that can never be appeased unless they get only their way. Even after the company has passed through all the regulatory hurdles, opponents will still sue to stop the progress. Eventually, the company will weigh the cost and not proceed. The opponents celebrate a victory that is usually hollow for the majority. Unless mankind wishes to extinguish itself from this planet, we will leave a footprint by just breathing. Chasing industry to China, or elsewhere is not a victory. They have no environmental safegaurds. By working together with industry in America, we can do more good to protect our planet in the long run. At least here we can monitor and continue to add new environmental technologies as they are created. This will leave a vastly reduced footprint than what will be left in just one day in another less caring country.