As Expected, Rio Tinto to Still Pursue Wilderness Road

By
Gabriel Caplett
– 02/14/2011

Some local coverage on Rio Tinto’s not-so-surprising decision to continue pursuing its wilderness 595/Woodland road to haul ore from its Eagle Mine to its Humboldt processing mill.  By having the county pursue the permits and by saying they can’t guarantee funding for the project, it seems Rio Tinto hopes to get around certain key federal laws.  It is their third attempt to get the road and the company has yet to address federal government concerns or apply for a Clean Water Act permit, choosing instead a more circuitous route.

The TV6 question in the following link is a bit off, as there hasn’t been extensive public opposition to the company driving its ore through Marquette; instead support for the 595/Woodland Road has come nearly exclusively from elected county, township and city officials these past few weeks.  Interesting to see how many voters expected Rio Tinto to still pursue its prized wilderness road:  http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=580274

Click here for Headwaters‘ previous coverage of the Rio Tinto haul road saga.

This post was written by

Gabriel Caplett – who has written 106 posts on Headwaters - Community Journalism for the Great Lakes.

Gabriel Caplett is a writer and market farmer from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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