No Longer In Support Of Gogebic Taconite Mine

I don't take pleasure in delivering the following news. I was initially a strong advocate of the Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) mine.

Fortunately I don't like to make decisions before informing myself. So after three months of digging I sadly report the following to you. If you are skeptical of my data I encourage you to go to the Iron Range and check for yourself every one of my claims. I would be happy to be wrong.

GTAC will make our fish inedible (fisherman take heed), kill our wild rice (duck hunters and ricers take heed), sterilize our rivers and lakes (water enthusiasts take heed). Have I got your attention? Good because its all true.

Even though taconite mining is not sulfide mining it still creates a sulfide and mercury pollution cycle. This cycle is unequivocally incompatible with fresh water. When sulfates enter the water they are acted on by a sulfide eating bacteria that turns mercury into methyl-mercury. This is the kind of mercury that gets transferred up the food chain and accumulates in the tissue of fish. It is the kind of mercury that turns into "do not eat fish from this body of water" warnings.

"Do not eat fish from this body of water" are the warnings you will be seeing on fish in the Chequamegon Bay and rivers affected by the GTAC pit mine. High sulfate levels and mercury is what killed over 100 miles of the St. Louis River to wild rice and is responsible for the inedibly high levels of mercury in the fish. High sulfate levels are slowly poisoning lakes and waterways throughout the Iron Range and it is caused by taconite mining.

Taconite tailings ponds on the Iron Range that are leaking (and they all leak, even the best of them) have been draining into the Partridge River for years. There are sulfates and mercury in this leakage. Once a river's sulfate level reaches a certain point, somewhere around 10 parts per million, the sulfate-eating bacteria get going and part of this byproduct is the methyl-mercury that gets into the fish and hydrogen sulfide which prevents wild rice from growing.

Where the Partridge River enters the St. Louis, and for at least 100 miles downstream, no wild rice, and fish mercury warnings. If you don't believe me check for yourself.

This absolutely will happen here.

The sustainable outdoor recreation and sports industries we have will no doubt be adversely affected by fish warnings caused by taconite mining. Are you prepared to lose those jobs for so many years of mining and certain poison?

The wild rice will disappear. Are you prepared to lose jobs associated with wild rice for so many years of mining and certain poison? Poison I might add that has been left in the hands of taxpayers to clean up in not a few instances on the iron range.

What we have now in the Penokees is a fish and wildlife factory as well as a water purification system that you couldn't buy for any amount of precious metals under it.

Citizens of Ashland and the surrounding community, don't trade the golden goose for a mercury egg! Demand your local and state politicians put an end to this water killer right now. Demand that GTAC pack up the boring equipment and move along. We prefer our clean water.

Signed,
Charles Ortman
Ashland