One environmental group has responded to the signing Monday in Rhinelander of the Mining For America Act. The bill ended the 20- year Mining Moratorium Law, which said mining companies have to prove they wouldn't pollute water resources before getting a permit to mine. None have opened in that time.
League of Conservation Voters spokesperson Ryan Billingham called the signing 'a sad day for Wisconsin'. While Governor Scott Walker touted the new and cleaner mining technologies during a press conference Monday, Billingham says sulfide mining is still not clean....
"....mining companies will come in and take massive amounts of rock out of the ground to get to a very miniscule amount of precious minerals, say gold or copper. The problem is when the rock is taken out of the ground and touches water and air, it creates acid mine drainage which is basically sulfuriic acid. And then the process begins of leaching into waterways. These are dangerous mines and have no place in Wisconsin...."
Governor Scott Walker said the state has strong environmental laws to prevent such problems, Billingham responded saying it was 'fallacious argument'...
"....the reason being we had the strongest law in the country, the 'gold' standard law, that has kept these toxic mines out of Wisconsin, and the reason they kept these mines out of Wisconsin is that law simply asked them to prove that they wouldn't poison our water. That's the only thing that law asks. No mining company had ever done it, and now they take away that law...."
Governor Walker voted in favor of the Mining Moratorium Law when it passed in 1998. He says he changed his mind after being convinced current laws and new mining technology would be successful.
