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Source: Portland Press Herald, MaineOct.mini storage 10--The Natural Resources Council of Maine on Thursday released a report showing that Maine's Department of Environmental Protection possesses documents that reveal that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountain in Aroostoock County is likely to pollute rivers, lakes and streams with sulfuric acid runoff and arsenic pollution. These documents have not been made public and have been withheld from state legislators.The state has proposed new open-pit mining regulations, but for a major rule change such as this, members of the Board of Environmental Protection, along with the full Legislature, must approve any regulatory modifications, said Nick Bennett, staff scientist with NRCM.The council's report comes just one week before the Board of Environmental Protection is set to hold a public hearing on proposed draft rules developed over the last 18 months by the DEP and its mining industry consultant North Jackson Co. of Marquette, Mich. The rules change was required under 2012 mining legislation pushed by J.D. Irving Ltd., of New Brunswick, which has proposed mining at Bald Mountain.The BEP hearing will be held Thursday, Oct. 17, at 9 a.m. at the Augusta Civic Center.Opponents of the proposed revisions, including environmental advocates, mining experts and engineering specialists, have questioned whose interests are being served by the new rules -- the public trust and environmental protection or Irving's plans.The NRCM report, "Bald Mountain Mining Risks: Hidden from the Public," draws on studies done by consultants for two mining companies that in the 1980s and 1990s pursued DEP permits for open-pit mining at Bald Mountain, said Bennett.The documents, secured by environmental risk manager Lindsay Newland Bowker of Science & Research in the Public Interest in Stonington and NRCM in Augusta through Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) requests, include repeated warnings that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountain would be very risky. Both mining companies -- Boliden and Black Hawk -- abandoned their mining plans largely because of the potential environmental risks and difficulties with mining operations at the Bald Mountain ore deposit."There's a lot of opposition and concern," said Bennett. "This is a really dangerous site. And once groundwater contamination starts, it's incredibly difficult to control."Heather Parent, policy director for DEP, said the NRCM report included "flat out lies and misrepresentations."DEP technical staff have been involved in every step of the rule-making process, she said."They helped us recraft the law to make it more protective," she said.Canada-based J.D. Irving Ltd. has expressed interest in open-pit mining at Bald Mountain and has been instrumental in having Maine's mining regulations revised and streamlined, or relaxed, to enable quicker approval of proposals to extract metals from sites around the state. Irving has described the Bald Mountain project as having a 500-acre footprint with a 100-acre open pit, valued by some estimates at billions of dollars and offering the prospect of as many as 700 direct and indirect jobs for the economically strapped northern Maine economy. Earlier job projections by other mining companies estimated the number of jobs would run between 75 and 130 positions.Technical experts for DEP and the two mining companies have repeatedly concluded that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountian would by extremely difficult, risky and costly because of high concentrations of sulfur and arsenic at the site, said Bennett.When exposed to air and water, the sulfur forms sulfuric acid, known as acid mine drainage (AMD). Sulfuric acid is a toxic component in car batteries, fertilizers, wastewater treatment and oil refininself storage -- and is one of the most widely used industrial manufacturing chemicals. In the mining process, the acid leaches out metals -- including arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, copper and zinc -- that occur naturally in the rock and causes them to seep into groundwater, rivers and lakes, Bennett said. Many of these heavy metals are extremely toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms, he said."The history of mining in Maine and across the country has been bad," Bennett said. The environmental risks at Bald Mountain and other sites in Maine should prompt more vigorous monitoring and regulations, not less, he said. "But DEP never let its technical folks to testify on this issue. Essentially they never spoke out to the Legislature."We don't want weakened rules to pass," Bennett said. "We'd like strict mining rules." He said NRCM endorses a return to the regulatory process outlined in LD 1302, which last spring passed in the House but failed by three votes in the Senate. The council has consistently backed rules that would require more responsibility for mining companies for any extraction operations -- and any resulting environmental damage that might occur.Bennett said the employment projections are "highly suspect" and that Irving has refused to to make public the analysis that resulted in estimates of several hundred jobs."Mining companies are notorious for underestimating environmental risks and overpromising jobs, and that's what we're seeing here in Maine with Irving's promotion of a mine at Bald Mountain," said Bennett. "Our report shows that DEP is fully aware that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountian could have huge environmental impacts, with relatively small and short-lived economic returns, yet DEP has failed to share this informtaion with lawmakers and the public."Newland Bowker, who has devoted nearly all her time for two years to closely study the Maine mining statute, rules, history and mining operations, said "the jobs simply are not there."Some of the internal DEP documents secured by NRCM were developed for the Swedish mining firm Boliden Resources, whose consultants found that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountain would likely never be able to meet water quality standards due to the likelihood that acid mine drainage would pollute surrounding waters.In the mid-1990s, Boliden sold its mineral rights to Black Hawk Mining Inc., which began the permitting process with DEP for a much smaller open-pit mine. Documents in DEP's files show that DEP's technical staff at that time believed that even this smaller mine would cause unacceptable risks to groundwater because of high arsenic levels.The NRCM report also includes assessments from the geologist who discovered the Bald Mountain ore deposit and has said that an open-pit mine at Bald Mountain would cause major environmental problems.Bowker said she has no conviction that BEP will change course following next week's public hearing."I'm not expecting a miracle here," she said. But she said a return to previous recommendations for rule changes that failed to gain approval from the full Legislature last spring would be insufficient protection. "It just is not a fix," she said.Bowker said the proposed rules set for public hearing are "pure jibberish" and that the state needed to get authentic and substantial help from a fully qualified mining expert to make sure environmental concerns would be met."It's not fair to ask people to comment on a rule that makes no sense," said Bowker.The full NRCM report and background materials are available at .nrcm.org.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine) Visit the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine) at .pressherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage