AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage has signed a bill to revise Maine’s mining regulations.
In a State House ceremony Tuesday, the governor said the bill opens the door to good jobs while protecting the environment. Supporters said it was adopted after an unusually thorough review process.
“It’s time to modernize Maine’s metallic mining regulations — now more than two decades old and under which a permit has never been issued — to reflect improvements in mining technology. This effort has the potential to create hundreds of jobs in northern Maine. It’s an opportunity we simply can’t afford to lose,” LePage said in a statement.
The commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, Patricia Aho, said the new law starts a process of updating the state’s mining rules and regulations, which will be presented to the Legislature in 2014.
The legislation was prompted by J.D. Irving Co.’s interest in mining gold, silver, copper and other metals in Aroostook County’s Bald Mountain. The bill’s supporters said restrictions in the law hamper the ability to develop potential mines in the state.
Environmentalists expressed reservations with the law, saying it weakens groundwater standards for mining operations and cleanup requirements for mining operations.
“These operations have no place in Maine,” said Environment Maine Director Emily Figdor.
“Rules regarding exploration and advanced exploration will be revised in the meantime.” I’ve heard of putting the cart before the horse before. Doesn’t this sound just a tiny bit like putting profits ahead of one’s environment? I’ve got no gripe against mining as long as they follow rules to put back into order that which they might do harm to (Like the soil and toxins that run into our drinking water, etc. etc.).
The sad thing is that there probably is a clear set of rules already. What one can infer from the “revised in the meantime” comment is that THOSE rules put too much burden/expense on the mining industry to put back into order that which they harm and thus will be relaxed for the benefit of the corporation.
How many of us out here really believes that a huge corporation is going to go into that area and do right by the land and by the people in this State if there isn’t already a clear set of rules to go by? If this were my land I’d set the rules and THEN let the digging begin. Why would it be wise for state officials to do the opposite? As a taxpaying citizen who votes, I want set rules NOW Mr. LePage.
You mean the rules Baldy’s gang of radicals put in place that forbid mining and any attempt at exploration?
Your strategy: totally ignore the article above and talk about something else entirely.
Effect: putting your head deep in the sands of denial about the truth: corporate greed has stolen our democracy.
GUESS WHO’S HAS BEEN PUSHING FOR A RELAXATION OF REGULATIONS TO PERMIT MINING AT BALD MOUNTAIN?
THE HONORABLE FORMER DEMOCRAT STATE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE JOHN MARTIN, NOW REPRESENTATIVE MARTIN.
THAT’S ONE OF YOUR LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE COMRADES I BELIEVE.
We’d all be better off if we targeted crime and greed–regardless of affiliation–rather than jerking our knees to defend one side or the other.
Your rage will not solve anything.
What rage are you talking about? &*#*$*#! I’m generally very much at peace for reasons I’ve mentioned before. I thought I’d just give you a passing jab to test your reaction. No ill-will on my part was intended even though we sit at opposite sides of the political table most of the time. With that, I wish you peace.
If anythnig is clear, its that greed, graft, and corruption definitely comes from both sides of the aisle.
I agree, but I think that governor of ours is as close to a dream governor as one will ever find among us mortals. :)
Yes the problem is in both houses..the problem is in the culture of our legislature you are absolutely right Whawell.
SpruceDweller
No question Maine is and has been a corporatocracy for a very long time.
Our legislature has been fully in servitude to the rapacious greed of corporations for a long time.
But this has happened with the consent of the goverened. “We the People” have facilitated and allowed this.
We elect and re elect the legislators who spend more of their time and effort giving it away every day to serve the profit and greed of corporations, most like Irving, non Maine corporations. Would the legislature have enacted this if every legisilator got tons of letters and emails from constituents? I don’t think so.
We are victims of the “duopoly”..the dysfunctions of an outdated and no longer viable two party system. We have to get beyond and outside the absurdity of being democrats or republicans and simply be awake aware engaged citizens.
Only backlash can take this back and radically change the culture of our legislative and regulatory process. Only backlash can end the corporatocracy in Maine and reinstate something like governance by and for the people of Maine.
I would love to see a referendum on the ballot in the fall overturning this bill. “We the people” can and must do this.
You’re a risk manager and bank regulator, who seems to have done quite well, and I’d say people ought to listen to you. The only problem is that most people on the right don’t seem to be open-minded enough to listen:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberals-and-conservatives-dont-just-vote-differently-they-think-differently/2012/04/12/gIQAzb1kDT_story_1.html
However, you can still speak out reach an important target audience of intelligent independents, fiscal conservatives, and of course liberals. Let your voice shine.
SD
Spruce..you are very kind
Your voice, every voice that tries to understand and engage and work through the challenges we face shines.
Each of us in our own way is uniquely gifted and uniquely needed. We need to listen to one another and respect one another. We need to be commonly committed to truth and fact even when we might disagree on what actions we should take on the basis of those facts.
Our power and effectiveness is in our co-intelligence. In our common sense and our common wisdom.
When we are all trying to think and understand beyond party ideology we all shine. I learn so much here every day in this community of bloggers. When we learn to speak beyond rank opinion and collectively endeavor to discover the truth, we find we agree on more that is truly important to us and that what we thought divided us is not as important as what we commonly understand and seek.
Thank you for the wisdom of your voice and your presence here helping us all sort through these issues in a meaningful and constructive way.
co-intelligence
common sense
the way out
You’re dreaming. There are plenty of perfectly safe ways to mine, and perfectly legal ways to explore under current regulations. Poor mister Irving just can’t make a big enough profit on this marginal deposit if he has to play by proven safe rules, so LePage and his cronies want to say “screw clean water, we need ten jobs for ten years”. The grossly overiniflated estimates of the value of the jobs and the value of the deposit are absolutely insane.
Exactly right, earthling3, and many of us with what little opportunity we had for public comment wrote and spoke exactly that to the Natural Resources Committee and blogged about in BDN and PPH. All fell on deaf ears, I guess.
As Pelosi said with the Great Health care Bill, lets pass it now and read whats in it later… I guess you were OK with that.. Just saying…
This type of mining process is not for Maine.. Youtube Mining for Gold in the Northwest Territory… Maine isn’t right for this type of mining.
gold detecting and dredging is what Maine gold is all about.
I’m with you on this one, David. Not a particularly common occurrence, but some ideas are just bad no matter how you shake them out.
Relax, there’s nothing you can do or say that will change of fate of Bald Mountain. Ayatollah John Martin, former Democrat House Speaker, now Rep John Martin, has spoken.
Not so. Not so. we can repeal it and I hope we will.
Well Said Still Relaxin.
The rushed edit of the 22 page bill drafted by Irvings Lawyers has produced a very flawed framework for metal mining in Maine exposing not just the headwaters around Bald Mountain but many other areas of Maine to risk Ostensibly based on Michigan’s law , created specifically to recognize the greater hazards of metal mining, the law the Governor just signed and regards as an accomplishment , couldn’t be further from Michigans law in spirit , in specific safeguards or in financial accountability. The regs it replaces, in place under LURC are much sounder and more comprehensive.
A lobbyist generated bill of this magnitude simply should not have been allowed this late in the legislative session. TheNatural Resources Committee has let all Mainers down in allowing this bill to go forward.
It is a lie that metal mining has any new technology that makes it safer for humanity or our natural resources..a total lie.
.I must say I am very disappointed that the Universityof Maie has jojned right in celebrating this as an opportunity for Maine hosting a big event in “the county” with the JD Irving. Just shocking.
JD Irving is in the middle of a big Canadian law suit for simply disregarding and enviornmental law he disagrees with. Of course however it comes out, the damage is done…
Nothing changes untill 2014. Don’t worry, by the time digging starts,(if ever) the new rules will have plenty of time to be picked apart.
I guess ole Paul is part of the problem and not the answer. It’s to bad, I had great faith in him at one time.
This site has been looked at numerous times by firms who specialize in mining and mine developement. Each time the end result has been that the deposit is to small and the global market they would have to compete in would not allow them to generate enough profit to justify the developement costs. These are firms with far more experience and far deeper pockets than JD Irving.
Goodness knows that the County needs the jobs but are we chasing a fool’s dream here ?
I am also concern that this is an end run attempt to get around responsible developement. Hopefully the State will not run head long into something that creates an environmental mess similar to those in the abandoned mines in the Blue Hill area. For those advocating this developement and those who will be establishing the rules for such developement please take time to see what happened in Blue Hill. We do not need to pass on another environmental mess for future generations to clean up.
Should such developement move forward let’s try a assure that most of the benefit stays in Maine. The Irvings have a history of passing most of the benefit into Canada. They are some of the biggest employers of Canadien cutters and most of the wood they cut in Maine is sent to Canada for finishing.
This is BS! This law is so full so special interest its a crying shame. There will be very few jobs for Mainers from this! There are ten’s of thousands of miners without work. They have experience. The jobs will go to them! The managers and engineer jobs will go to people from outside as well. You don’t just train them for a couple weeks and send them out to the mine. The ONLY jobs going to the loacals will the be low paying support postions! This entire deal is a scam.
Look up this type of mining. It takes up large areas of land. Massive pile of tailings, that will leach out the chemicals used to extract the gold from the rock. Lets be clear, they are not mining for chuncks and pieces of gold. They are going after microscopic particles of gold. This is removed by a chemical process! There is no way to remove all the chemicals from the tailings. So the big giant tailing piles that will be created will leach out these chemicals for decades. This will ruin the watershed around Bald Mountain and down stream of it! This is a fact! There is not a single mine of this type around the WORLD that has NOT polluted the surrounding area and down stream!
And what’s going to happen when Irving is done mining and get what they want. And then leave these giant tailing piles to leach out? They will start a new corporation to open and run the mine. Once the mine starts producing less and less. They will declare bankruptcy, and leave the public on the hook to clean up the mess. Superfund site anyone! This is the way similar companies have been doing it around the country! Tax money will have to be used to help clean up the environmental mess.
And for a state that gets the majority of its money from touruism this sure is a funny way to draw tourists. I don’t know very many people who go “hey, lets go check out that big strip mine”. When the “outdoorsman” type tourists stop going to the Bald Mountain region due to loss of habitat. The area could even see a drop in employment! And combine that with the fact that the majority of the workers will be from away. The tax base will actually go DOWN. Hows that you say? Because the miners and engineers will keep their residences in their home states. They will pay their income taxes to their HOME states! Heck, Irving will even figure out a way to get their Canadian trucks and workers in on it. And Maine will get nothing from it but a big giant polluted wastland hole in the ground!
I don’t live or work in the area. But I will be the first to sign a petition to repeal this law if it is in fact signed!!! This is not good for Maine. It’s good for just a few people!
Mainers can clean the Porto Potties for the Canadian Miners.
Relax, I am sure that the University of Maine, or some green group with survey the area and find an Osprey living there, or a purple spotted red rimmed lorax that will shut down any chances of mining. I bet there is a lynx or two living on that mountain as well, endangered species do have their uses…
The U OF Maine is facilitating and celebrating this!!!! Outrageous and very disappointing.
There is some sort of do this week in FT Kent with U Of Maine hosting JD Irving to discuss the joys annd opportuities of open pit metal mining.
I hope every single actovist in the state somehow turns to say for all of us what we think of U Maine doing that and what we thibk of JD Irving.
Well Now electricians who are licensed are not needed . Hmmmmmmmm I do not tink thier is a shortage of licensed electricians. Going to be a lot in the unemployment lines now that the contractors can use cheap help.
Next time you are beating on your keyboard be aware many parts of your computer came out of the earth and everything else we use in life comes from the earth..What kind of world would we live in right now if no minerals were ever mined?? I have faith in our DEP to watch out for us…Besides most of the fish that are left up here have 3 eyes anyhoo from all the acid rain that Boston and New York have been puking on us the last 30 years..So I am going to take a gamble here and stick with the Billions that will be pumped into our economy over the life of the proposed mine thanks!
I expect the anti-mining crowd will deny my take on their collective living circumstances. The majority of them are retired and deriving great pleasure in their well-heeled retirment funds. As they retreat to their camp decks, they feel entitled to a pristine and peaceful environment. They want no turbines obstructing their views across their lake and how dreadful would it be to interrupt the serenity of their retirement with the sounds of mining on a far away mountain. I’ve noticed also, they call the environment….’my environment”…like they actually have a deed and a title to it.
But for young couples, struggling to even find a job and put food on the table for their children and clothes on their backs…these young sing a seriously different tune. No amount of regulations will ever satisfy the “not in my back yard” elites…who demand the perfect solitude for their early morning rides in their pleasure boats on “their lake”. The stuggles and the suffering of the unemployed with no job in sight isn’t on the “elites” radar. The opportunities that mining on Bald Mountain holds for suffering and struggling unemployed young families can lead to them finally supporting themselves and feeding their families.
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Open for business. If people don’t like windmills on mountains, what are they going to feel about slagpiles. The only way to get anything out of mining in Maine is to blow it up and process the rock. Lepage’s vision.
Even though this was a democrat’s bill, Paulie can’t wait to put his signature on it. How stupid was Martin to play right into the Tea Party’s hands on this one! Deregulation is one of their main objectives. Shame on Martin for putting his debt obligations ahead of the interests of the people of this state. Make one thing perfectly clear: this is not about jobs, this is about a personal debt being paid off by proposing legislation. Fifty tons of ore to get one ounce of gold! Ridiculous!
This is going to become an environmental disaster for the pristine waters of the Fish River Chain of lakes. There was an excellent opinion letter by Phil Soucy in the April 18 edition of the St. John Valley Times concerning the environmental implications involved in mining copper.
More special interest legislation that benefits one company. Irving. Thanks for thinking of YOUR wallet Mr. Martin. Stay true to Canada “Lame Duckie” LePage.
LePage made a lot of friends in Canada while he was dodging the draft.
Jobs for Northern Maine, Viva Lepage.
Hey LePage did you OK Mountain Top Removal in the bill? Like they do in Appalachia, destroying lakes, rivers and streams.
Nope, this is a very,very, very bad idea.No amount of profit or jobs can offset the damage that this sort of operation will do to Maine. Private property, fine but there are limitations to what you can do to/on it,and when what you might do could horribly affect,forever, all around then rules must be in place before even a thought of beginning is allowed.
It is rare that StillRelaxin(high as hell) ,SpruceDweller(lives in tree house) and I agree, but this is one of those times.This is beyond dangerous. The contamination caused by the pilings and chemicals could forever poison the environment for miles surrounding, and that’s if everything goes well.
To go ahead with this without clear rules and regs. backed up with the nastiest of consequences and enforcement is irresponsible beyond measure.
Do a goggle on this type of operation folks, read p on it, look at the pictures, then tell me if you want to take these kinds of risk.
Profit and jobs are great, but this scares the bajezus outo me.
Google Colorado mining and see the amount of heavy metal poisons put in the environment during their Boom and Bust Mining. Poison lakes, poison rivers, slag piles of chemicals and heavy metal, poison everywhere. People sick and dieing of heavy metal poisoning and cancer long distances away from the actual mines. Lets also not forget most of these mines have been abandoned long ago yet they still are leaching poison into Colorado’s Lakes and Rivers from 100 years ago. All of this catastrophe to benefit Canadian Miners working in Maine.
Change “could forever poison” to “will forever poison” and you can add me to the list as well. Strip mining is one of the most irresponsible types of industrial activity ever undertaken by humanity.
I plan to vote for LePage again…!
Don’t feel too lonely. I have an adopted cousin who for no reason bangs his head repeatedly against cement walls. Other than his low I.Q., the psychiatrists can’t find the underlying cause(s).
Dont blame him, its probably genetic
Look a little closer. It might be the people around him…at the root of his head banging.
Have you been drinking again?
Listen to the enviroterrorists whine!!!
Do not listen to the environmentalist — I encourage you to make up your on mind on this issue.
Start off by visiting the same type of mines that used to be in the Blue Hill area and do a little research to see what an environmental mess was left behind.
Then look just a little deeper to find out many millions of tax dollars we have spent to date and how many millions more we are going to spend before we are done with the clean ups.Simply type Callahan Mines Maine into your search bar. It is kind of scary and there is no boggie man environmental terrorist llisted there — just some cold hard facts.
Before this area is mined we the public need to establish some guide lines to prevent another recurrance of this. Profits and greed do awful things to the reasoning of coporations. They have a long history of not being overly concerned with the public’s wellbeing.
This is Martin’s way of paying Irving back (he and his partner) all of the money they owe them for gas. Duh. Can’t believe Lepage signed it, though.
What do you mean by (he and his partner)? What are you getting at?
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I would suggest you not apply.
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Of course…..you’re retired.
There goes another piece of our kids’ future!
Now the North Woods becomes the North Dead Zone. No means exists to safely do this. Guess we can add killer, to buffoon and bully as appropriate characterizations of this governor.
Aren’t you just the “drama queen”
Perfect name for somebody from the D.E.P.
Mind you, this legislation is to be voted on in 2014. LePage wont be in office by then. This and many other things will have been removed from the LePage destruction by the people whom never want to see him back.
OH OH ! The enviro-bots will be tearing their shirts off (and their hair out). The sky is falling…the sky is falling ! Panic city ! Sound the alarm ! Full panic mode ! Quick, quick everybody…..call our network and get a protest scheduled. Let the word go out to every town and village.
Oh……I thought I would throw out a fact in my alarmist diatribe.
About 90 percent of Maine is forested, the highest percentage of any state. This includes some 12 million acres in the northern part of Maine, where Bald Mountain is and where few people live.