Injunction upheld on mine permit
Injunction upheld on mine permit
By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will appeal an Ingham County Circuit Court judge’s refusal Wednesday to stay an injunction blocking further consideration of a Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company mining application.
The order issued in June by Judge Paula J.M. Manderfield requires another hearing of a petition to Kennecott’s permit application before an administrative rules judge.
Until that hearing is held, the DEQ is barred from further consideration of the Kennecott application. The DEQ wanted this action lifted.
“The Circuit Court declined to stay its own order,” said Hal Fitch, director of the Office of Geological Survey with the DEQ in Lansing. “We’re filing with the Court of Appeals.”
No estimate was available today on how long it would be before motions would reach the appellate court.
Fitch said state mining rules allow for “any person aggrieved by an action or inaction” to have a hearing. These rules resulted in an original petition by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Huron Mountain Club and the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve Inc. alleging that Kennecott’s application is incomplete.
The petitioners said the DEQ wrongfully decided that Kennecott’s application was “administratively complete.” They alleged the DEQ is now considering, and has disseminated to the public, an incomplete application that is missing numerous documents and pieces of information required by the state’s sulfide mining statute and rules.
The judge hearing the petition originally tossed it out. The groups then appealed to Manderfield who granted the injunction.
Fitch said the DEQ doesn’t agree that the groups were harmed in any way — the reason the first hearing was allowed to take place.
“They are not arguably harmed until we issue a final decision on Kennecott’s permit,” Fitch said. “If they get a permit.”
But for now, the DEQ is blocked from issuing preliminary or final decisions, or working further on reviewing the application.
Michelle Halley, an attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, praised Wednesday’s court ruling.
“It’s a great decision and we’re very pleased with it, of course,” Halley said.
Kennecott officials were unavailable for comment by press time this morning.
Fitch said the DEQ is concerned about the decision to grant the injunction because the ruling could be precedent-setting, blocking numerous applications for a wide range of projects across the state.
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