State Senator Tom Tiffany(R-Hazelhurst) says he will soon introduce legislation to repeal Wisconsin's mining moratorium law.
The law was approved in 1998 to prevent the pollution of state waters by acid drainage from mining. The votes to approve the moratorium then were 29-3 in the state Senate and and 91-6 in the Assembly.
During a listening session Monday in Rhinelander, Tiffany said he was going to work to repeal the law because the closed Flambeau sulphide mine near Ladysmith, he says, has not polluted the environment to any major degree.
He says the moratorium law is unnecessary because the remainder of Wisconsin's sulphide mining laws are among the most stringent in the nation and courts have ruled no significant pollution has resulted...
".....I believe we have met the intent as stated in state statute and therefore the statute is no longer necessary. I'm not talking about changing any numeric standards in terms of emissions into the environment. That will be included in a bill...."
Opponents were quick to disagree.
Longtime mining opponents Al Gedicks and David Blouin wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that mining companies have not provided one example of a mine successfully closed. The authors say Tiffany cannot use the Flambeau mine as an example because one stream near the site did show pollution, so, they say, it disqualifies the Flambeau mine as an example.
They said June 2014, the EPA listed “Stream C” at the Flambeau mine site as “impaired waters” due to copper and zinc toxicity linked to the Flambeau mine operation.
Tiffany says he will author the bill to repeal the Mining Moratorium law this month.
