Strengthen mining laws
To the editor:
The fate of northern Maine’s water and wilderness is in your hands. The state legislature and the Board of Environmental Protection are soon going to vote about Maine’s mining laws.
The proposed Irving open-pit copper mine at Aroostook’s Bald Mountain is likely to pollute the groundwater of the St. John and Aroostook watersheds for hundreds or thousands of years.
The Bald Mountain mine’s toxic “tailings pond,” a dump of long-lived and life-threatening amounts of sulfuric acid (battery acid) and arsenic, is likely to get into the watersheds’ groundwater. According to David Chambers, president of the Montana-based Center for Science in the Public Participation, “once acid drainage starts, it’s virtually impossible to stop. It’s going to move. This is especially true in mountainous areas.”
Irving is proposing a new detox method, “reverse osmosis,” the same process that didn’t work in the dry Western climate. If this “reverse osmosis” is so good, why does Irving want Maine to weaken its existing groundwater laws?
Irving claimed they’d create 700 jobs at Bald Mountain. Later they said the local people wouldn’t be skilled enough. Previous mining companies opted out because of the likeliness and expense of groundwater pollution. One of these companies, Boliden, estimated 80-130 jobs. The other company, Black Hawk, estimated 75 jobs. Similar mining jobs last about five years.
Trading our groundwater and wilderness for the jobs is likely to cost us big money to try to clean up.
Please help save our groundwater and wilderness environment. E-mail the DEP at www.maine.gov/dep before the Dec. 23rd deadline. Ask them to strengthen, not weaken our mining laws to protect us from mining pollution. Ask them to make the prospective mining company put billions of dollars into a trust fund first before granting them a mining permit. Ask them to require a third party without vested interests to verify the adequate amount and availability of the clean-up funds as a precaution of the mining company going bankrupt.
Please also contact your state representative and senator asking them to vote for the above laws.
Carol McKnight
Presque Isle
Teachers deserve support
To the editor:
I sent in a letter last week in response to Mr. Cyr’s first letter. I would like to reach out to parents who have children in school to contact our school board members in support of our teachers. To those of you who have seen your children’s teachers’ efforts, and recognize their dedication, call the board, show your support.
Mary McGlinn
Caribou
