October 15, 2018 at 4:33 p.m.
UW-Extension, OCEDC host second mining discussion
Two more sessions planned before November vote
UW-Extension, OCEDC host second mining discussion
To help voters answer that question, the University of Wisconsin Extension - Oneida County and the independent, non-profit Oneida County Economic Development Corporation are collaborating to provide research-based information on the mining process and the proposed mining site.
This is being accomplished through a PlaceSpeak website as well as a series of four community discussion sessions being held across the county in October. The second session was held Oct. 11 at the Nokomis Town Hall. Another meeting is planned for 3 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Sugar Camp Town Hall and the last will be held at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 27 at the Minocqua Center.
Like Thursday's meeting in Nokomis, all of the public deliberative forums are scheduled to last two hours.
Myles Alexander of the UW-Extension served as moderator of the Nokomis meeting which also included Tom Jerow and Steve Donohue, in person, and Ken Bradbury, via Skype, until technical difficulties ended his participation.
All are members of the Oneida County mining information initiative advisory panel. Jerow is a retired DNR Northern Regional Water leader and member of Wisconsin's Green Fire. He worked on several water programs as well on the Flambeau Mine project near Ladysmith. Donohue works with Foth and VanDyke, an engineering consulting company based in Wisconsin, and is a licensed hydrologist. His career has spanned 28 years working on various mining projects. Bradbury is the state geologist.
The first 40 minutes of the program consisted of a question-and-answer period. A common thread among the questions posed by the approximately 40 people in attendance was safety.
In response, Alexander noted that no one has submitted a proposal to lease the land for a mine.
"That would be years in the future," he said.
Donohue agreed that even if the county board approves a lease for the Lynne Deposit, a mine would not spring up overnight.
"The first stage would be exploration and then the second stage would be study. The mining company would study various engineering development plans, mining plans before they would get to a point where they have a specific proposal that they will want to put in front of the DNR," Donohue said. "It will probably take a mining company maybe three to four years from the start of exploration to actually get to the point where they have a proposal that they will put in front of the DNR and in front of the public."
The panelists also opined that while the Flambeau Mine showed that open pit sulfide mining could be done close to a river, that site has not been officially closed by the DNR and there are environmental "issues" there that remain unresolved.
When asked about how potential copper or mercury releases into the Willow River, located a half-mile from the Lynne deposit, would affect fish, it was pointed out that it takes only a small amount of either to negatively impact aquatic species.
"If you are going to mine things like copper and zinc, some people would disagree, but arguably we need these for the economy, things like our cellphones and digital things like that, you're almost invariably left with having some type of deposit where the copper and the zinc are bound with sulfide," Donohue said. "In those types of formations, you're going to get other types of sulfide minerals, waste minerals, and when you develop the waste rock and tailings, those waste rock and tailings will have some of those sulfide minerals in it."
He said the safe storage of these materials over time poses a challenge for mining companies.
If not stored properly, Donohue said the waste material gets wet, which leads to the formation of acidic runoff that can make its way into the groundwater of a river or stream.
All of the questions that were asked at the meeting, along with answers to questions asked at the previous meeting, are available on the PlaceSpeak website. The website also includes information about the Lynne deposit. This information is also available at each town hall in the county, Alexander said.
After the question-and-answer period, the audience broke into smallers groups for the public deliberative forum portion where attendees discussed mining-related issues and considered options.
"I think it went pretty well," Alexander said in a phone interview Friday. "Given that there are people who are deeply concerned, have direct experience with earlier mining efforts, have substantial fears about what mining could do in the town of Lynne and downstream, but most people were there to learn and learn from each other and think more deeply about the subject. And I consider that a success."
The information on the PlaceSpeak website is open to everyone, but to take part in discussions and polls users must register with an Oneida County address. Alexander said the registration information will not be shared with third party companies.
The website can be found at https://bit.ly/2A1b4WJ.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at jamie@rivernews online.com.
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