To the editor:
Despite what Kenora MP Greg Rickford and Cliffs Natural Resources say – we’ve heard it before, and as most of us know, this region has a legacy of industrial and mining pollution.
Remember mercury in the English-Wabigoon, uranium in the Serpent River, taconite drifting here from the U.S. shore of Lake Superior – and the creosote blob in our own harbour?
And lest we believe this is merely history, and lest we are tempted by current reassurances – consider the following recent violations by Cliffs Natural Resources.
On Sept. 22, 2012, La Presse in Quebec reported that in May 2011 the breach of a dike at Cliffs’ Bloom Lake mine had dumped “the equivalent of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools of untreated water,” and that “fifteen downstream lakes were affected by the breach.”
The article mentions two other environmental violations of 10,00 litres and 2 million litres respectively. Meanwhile, on Oct. 29, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio announced fines for environmental violations upon two instances at Cliffs’ Northshore Mining site in Silver Bay.
Thus, is there any wonder why the First Nations folks in the Ring of Fire have requested full public hearings before mining begins in the Ring of Fire? And without full public hearings do you think that Cliffs would volunteer this kind of information to the public?
Peter Lang,
Kaministiquia
