Below is a copy of a letter written by a Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation board member. It summarizes the many concerns Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has about this proposed Potash mining operation in Hersey, Michigan. Please feel free to take action – Michigan Potash Company. Share your concerns with the Department of Environmental Quality’s Oil, Gas, and Minerals Division (OGMD) Director Harold R. Fitch. His email address is fitchh@michigan.gov
Subject: Potash Mine Operation Injection Well Permits
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am writing to let you know that I oppose the issuance of permits for this potash solution-mining venture near Evart, Michigan. As a concerned citizen, I would like answers to the following questions:
- Why you would consider granting permits to handle and inject strong brine solutions in such an environmentally-sensitive location?
- Are you certain that the rates of fresh-water withdrawal planned by Michigan Potash Co. will not cause aquifer draw-down, destruction of residential wells, and drying up of area streams and wetlands? Do you even know what pumping rates will be over time?
- Are you certain that wastes, injected under high pressure won’t migrate upwards into drinking water aquifers through cracks in the confining rock layers? Have you studied the drilling-logs for 36 nearby deep wells which could verify the integrity of those layers?
- Please tell me how much money will be available for future cleanup and repair of damage to aquifers, wells, and surface-water resources in the areas where Michigan Potash Co. LLC intends to operate, given that Limited Liability Corporations are created precisely to “limit their liability” for such problems?
In closing, I would like to register my strongest objection to having all information regarding this project withheld from public view. I do not believe that Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act was ever intended to be used as a tool to permit a large-scale industrial mining operation to proceed without a free and open assessment of its environmental impacts.
Click here to read more about the Michigan Potash Company LLC.