NW WI Mine Would Release Multiple Contaminants

First the test borings, then 35 years of open pit mining:

With concerned citizens gathering in Hurley, Wis. today for the first of potentially only two required hearings regarding Gogebic Taconite’s application to mine iron ore from the Penokee Range, the company’s initial application materials are a huge cause for concern about the future of Wisconsin’s Northwoods. 

“The volume of waste rock they will generate is enough to bury the entire city of Green Bay under 10.5 feet of waste,” says Tyson Cook, staff scientist at Clean Wisconsin, the state’s largest environmental organization. “And to make matters worse, we now know the exact areas they will mine, areas where the presence of mercury, arsenic, asbestos-like minerals and acid-causing rock has been confirmed.”