Posted on 02/18/2016 1:41:33 PM PST by MichCapCon
In the midst of an Upper Peninsula winter, the thoughts and hopes of many local officials and residents of the Marquette area are centered on Grand Rapids. That’s where Judge Robert Holmes Bell of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan is presiding over the case known as Marquette County Road Commission v. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
On July 10, 2015, the road commission filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s decision to block construction of a 21-mile-long county road (CR 595) that would shorten the route between the Eagle Mine and its ore processing facility at the Humboldt Mill.
According to Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, the court proceedings have brought to light information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealing that the EPA never intended to give the project a fair hearing.
“What we’ve found out from the EPA FOIAs is consistent with what we know they told Sen. Barbara Boxer," Casperson said. (Boxer, a Democrat from California, was the chair of Environment and Public Works Committee of the U.S. Senate at the time in question.)
“They had clearly made up their minds ahead of time to block the road from being built. The EPA knew they were going to reject the road project from the very beginning.â€
“What’s worse, the EPA let everyone who supported putting the road through continue to diligently work out every minute detail, step by step, trying carefully to do everything they could to make sure the project was being done right,†Casperson continued. “Just as they have done with their power and energy plans, the EPA had no respect for the process. It intended to dictate the result all along in pursuit of its politically motivated agenda.â€
Supporters of the project point out that County Road 595 would shorten the round trip between the mine and the mill by 78 miles. As a result, they say, it would divert nearly 100 commercial vehicles per day from local roads, including those near schools, reducing fuel consumption by more than 464,000 gallons each year.
Tony Retaski, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, said that he’s with a group of local residents who are very supportive of going forward with the road.
“There are a lot of people who are in favor of constructing the road,†Retaski said. “It’s about the economy. There are about 200 jobs at stake. Without the road the only direct way to get there is by snowmobile or ATV.â€
Retaski was asked if he’s concerned that the road would hurt the environment.
“Without the road a lot more fuel would get burned and that means more emissions going into the air,†Retaski said. “You could build a house and someone could always say it has some negative impact on the environment. It’s the same with a road.â€
The Michigan Legislature has given its bipartisan support to the Marquette County Road Commission in the dispute. Senate Resolution 9, sponsored by Casperson, and House Resolution 13, sponsored by Rep. John Kivela, D-Marquette, backed the road commission. Each resolution was passed by its respective chamber. Several federal officials from Michigan have also expressed their support for the road commission, including Rep. Dan Benishek, a Republican whose district includes the Upper Peninsula; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat; and retired Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat.
Casperson’s mention of a communication from the EPA to Boxer draws on a Nov. 28, 2012 letter from Marquette area environmental activist Laura Farwell to Lynn Abramson, then a senior legislative assistant for Boxer, and Thomas Fox, the senior counsel of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, asking them to weigh in on the issue. Farwell's letter mentions a meeting on Aug. 30, 2011, at which Denise Keehner of EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds definitively reiterated EPA’s position and stated that the haul road [CR 595] would not happen.
:: the EPA let everyone who supported putting the road through continue to diligently work out every minute detail, step by step ::
Which, of course, costs money at every level.
Next time...lesson learned.
The stranglehold on our government, thus our lives by the environmentalists is incredible.
The environmentalists are the major supporters, the BIG MONEY behind the Democrat party. Virtually everything the environmentalists want is dictated through the Democrat party.
The only good Democrat isn’t.
And the fact that the EPA is creating dangers by forcing the Trucks to continue using the public roads.
It’s time for Congress to act. Not that they will, just that they should.
Look this is a fight between a large foreign mining company and people whose land is in the way, and other mines with their large mining companies and the people who don’t want the ships to change docks.
This has nothing to do with jobs. Right now there are trucking jobs and two mills running. The Eagle mill has been running since the 1800’s. I was just watching the UP200 in Marquette. Which is a 200 mile dog sled race. They could put the ore on sleds and get those dogs working for real.
Republicans should stay out of this. Its billionaires fighting billionaires. If Rio Tinto’s profits can get a little better by using one mill instead of two, why do we care. Clearly they didn’t pay off enough officials.
My point was that the localities and MI_DOT should have stopped spending so much money until the EPA gave them the “Go”, which was never intended from the start.
YOUR tax money was wasted because of EPA’s political workings.
This has little to do with Environmentalists. The mines have been around for a very long time. And their were railroads along the route. This is simply a case of the worlds largest mining company buying two mines and trying to operate them with fewer workers. If they blow a road straight through peoples farms they could use bigger trucks and they could build their own port and not use the one in Marquette. Rio Tinto is not our problem. And republicans should not be on the side of taking peoples farms or parks.
At the very least there should be a time limit on EPA foot dragging. The EPA should issue their ruling in a timely manner or the project can proceed.
Its reminiscent of the clean coal plant they were going to build near Richardson. The planners spent a decade in court, getting things approved by the EPA etc. When it was finally approved by the EPA, the Granholm DEQ declared that the project wasn’t needed.
Same with the waste-to-energy project east of Albion (1990s).
So much local effort and money. The DEQ came in and said, “Nope! Everyone go home.”
I was actually commenting on the EPA. An aside to the article.
It’s a county road. It should be a county issue unless they plan to pave it with depleted uranium.
Its mostly wilderness. I think people often forget how rugged some parts of Michigan really are.
Build the road. Have the county Sheriff block any federal law enforcement activity. Time to take back what is ours.
Wow! There are farms in the McCormick Tract of the Upper Peninsula?
Say, maybe you could post up the planned route of the county road they're talking about, so we can look at these farms and parks they're going to pave over, with Google satellite.
There's no farms, poinq. Well, unless you count the Moose Farm, or the Wolf Farm. :)
If you blindfold someone and drop them out there they might think they had been dumped somewhere in the Northwest territories or sub tundra Alaska.
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