Mining Bill Will Pollute the State.
The result was the bipartisan Mining Moratorium Law which has protected our rivers, lakes and streams from toxic mining waste for the past two decades.
A foreign corporation wants to mine sulfide ore deposits in our northwoods and has colluded with some Republican legislators to craft legislation that would not only repeal Wisconsin’s Mining Moratorium Law but also weaken many other environmental safeguards.
When sulfide rock is exposed to water and air, it creates sulfuric acid.
This Acid Mine Drainage has created environmental disasters across the country, from the contaminated streams in Appalachia to the polluted rivers in the western mountains.
Mining is America’s most toxic industry.
The Senate voted 29-3 for the bill and the Assembly 91-6.
The law requires companies that want to develop sulfide mines in Wisconsin to show another mine that has operated for 10 years and been closed for 10 years without polluting groundwater and surface water.
That’s why it’s often called the “Prove It First Law.” The foreign mining company now wants to repeal the law because the mining industry has not been able to show even one mine in a sulfide ore body in all of North America that can meet that common sense standard.
Repealing the Prove it First Law is apparently not enough kowtowing to the foreign mining conglomerate for the Republican legislators.