Resources, economy are key concerns
T12, R8 WELS, Maine — While proposed metal mining regulations wind through state government, those in favor of a mine in Aroostook County and those opposed to one are again thinking about long-term visions for the region’s natural resources.
The Department of Environmental Protection is proposing new metal mining regulations under a 2012 law replacing a 1990 law and subsequent regulations. The new proposal, which has to be approved by the Legislature, would create permits for different levels of exploration and mining and set up rules for mining, waste and long-term pollution control.
In a summary of the regulations, the DEP says that they offer “performance-based standards” and “requirements designed to prevent the contamination of surface and groundwater.” The Maine Board of Environmental Protection is holding a public hearing on the proposal beginning at 9 a.m. in Augusta on Sept. 15, 2016.
Nick Bennett, a staff scientist with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said that the DEP’s proposed regulations “have not gotten significantly better” than the past two versions that were rejected by the Legislature. The process of creating an open pit mine and extracting metals would create large quantities of wastewater and acidic rock, he said.
One of the main problems with the regulations, he argues, is a part of the 2012 law that would allow mines to degrade groundwater in the mining area. As the law states, “Discharges to groundwater from activities permitted under this article may occur within a mining area, but such discharges may not result in contamination of groundwater beyond each mining area.”
According to the DEP’s proposed regulations, any water that would be discharged outside of the mining area into other water bodies would have to meet quality standards, although Bennett and others are skeptical about controlling impacted groundwater at a mining site that could be larger than 50 acres.
“The idea that you can allow that and keep it on site is a very dangerous idea,” Bennett argues. “In Maine, groundwater connects to surface water very easily.”
Among other provisions in the DEP’s proposed regulations are requirements for preventing leaching from acidic rocks and metals, and long-term financial assurance and contingency plans.
Maine’s 1990 law and regulations adopted the next year prohibited groundwater contamination in a mining area, Bennett said. The law was passed in the wake of the closure of Callahan Mine in Hancock County, now a federal superfund site that has been linked to elevated levels of copper, lead and zinc in a nearby estuary.
The 2012 mining law was prompted in part by J.D. Irving Ltd’s interest in potentially developing a mine at Bald Mountain, about 12 miles west of Portage. The company, which did not respond to a request for information about the potential mining project, is a majority owner of the forest land around Bald Mountain, and has said that the existing law and regulations from 1991 effectively prohibit mining in general.
At 1,526-feet tall, Bald Mountain is home to one of several of Maine’s “volcanic massive sulfides” a rock deposit that formed more than 250 million years ago through oceanic volcanoes and that now holds gold, copper, zinc and other metals.
In 1977, after the area had been logged, Auburn native John Cummings, former chief geologist with the Sewall engineering company, discovered the valuable metals at Bald Mountain and set off a wave of interest in a potential mine. In 1990, the Swedish mining company Boliden Resources proposed harvesting gold, copper and zinc at Bald Mountain, but ended up not moving ahead with an application. Another company, Black Hawk, also backed out of a plan in 1997 to mine for copper and gold.
Bald Mountain sits in the working forest of the North Maine Woods, in the headwaters of multiple lake and rivers systems, among logging operations and leased family camps and campgrounds.
Craig and Betsy Tirrell of Storrs, Conn., who have family ties to the area and plan to spend retirement time there, along with Bennet and local environmental advocates, say they are concerned that a mine would threaten the region’s natural asset of water, as well as displace camps in the area.
“This area depends so much on natural resources for sustainable jobs that people have — farmers, hunters, guides,” said Gail Maynard, a retired educator and organic beef farmer from Woodland.
The valuable-metals in Bald Mountain are contained in and among rocks with a number of substances, including naturally-occurring toxins like arsenic, cadmium and lead that the mining opponents fear could be released by a mine. They also expressed concerns about the potential failure of mining infrastructure like wastewater-holding ponds, as happened at the Polley copper, gold and silver mine in British Columbia in August 2014, when a dam breach released more than 2 billion gallons of “tailings” water into nearby waterways.
“The more we learned about it, the more we realized that it couldn’t be done safely,” said Craig Terrell, a plant scientist. “I think we throw away enough materials that could be recycled,” he said, referring to modern civilization’s dependence on metals for everything from bridges to smartphones and solar panels.
Supporters of a Bald Mountain mine argue that modern industrial technology and regulations can prevent water contamination in the surrounding area, and that the project would bring hundreds of jobs and millions in tax dollars over several decades.
“I do believe it can coexist,” said Bob Dorsey, president of the Aroostook Partnership, a nonprofit business coalition. “It does in New Brunswick and other countries,” he said.
Sharing the same northern Appalachian range as Maine, New Brunswick has a long history of mining in the Bathurst Mining Camp, a region once home to the one of the world’s largest lead and zinc mines before it closed in 2013 after 50 years.
This year, production began at the Caribou Mine and Mill, a complex at another formerly closed mine in the Bathurst mining region, with a mine and processing and waste treatment operations for extracting copper, gold, lead, silver and zinc. In central New Brunswick, about 40 miles east of the border with Bridgewater, there are plans for an open pit mine for tungsten and molybdenum.
Irving, which operates forestry and other businesses in Atlantic Canada, has not been involved in a mine before, although Dorsey said the company has the resources and incentives to invest in a long-term, responsibly-run mine. Global metal prices are currently low and there has been no formal application for a mine.
Dorsey said that a mine operating for 20 or 30 years would fit in well with the local economy’s natural resources and leave much of the surrounding forestland undisturbed. He and others also argue that the region, with its aging workforce and gradually shrinking population, would welcome an industry offering jobs for regional residents and employees from out-of-state companies who hopefully would settle in the region with families.
At the same time that Aroostook County’s economy could benefit from a mine, Dorsey said, the region does have some good opportunities for job-seekers.
With some 31,000 jobs in The County, there is about 10 percent annual turnover that Dorsey said is in large part due the wave of retirement, which is opening up jobs in agriculture, business management, education, insurance, healthcare and social services. “I don’t know an employer that isn’t looking for qualified workers,” Dorsey said. “We don’t have as many technical jobs or the variety of jobs in the Boston or Portland areas, but we have a lot.”
