Senate panel approves controversial mining bill

MADISON - Wisconsin would end its limited moratorium on sulfide mining, and ease the way for future mining projects, under legislation advanced by state senators Wednesday.

Republicans approved Senate Bill 395 on a party-line, 3-2 vote out of the Committee on Sporting Heritage, Mining and Forestry. The legislation has brought with it a fight between environmental and business interests over whether sulfide mining can be carried out safely in Wisconsin and whether the bill, in effect, will roll back protections.

“Someone should just do an amendment to take the miner off the state flag if we don’t pass this bill ... because he’s not going to work here anymore,” said Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst), chairman of the committee and one of the bill’s lead sponsors.

Mining companies have eyed Wisconsin for years, but according to mining supporters, the state’s laws are so restrictive they effectively rule out sulfide mining.

The legislation targets mining for minerals such as copper, zinc, gold and silver in sulfide rock deposits that have the potential to create acidic runoff and pollute ground and surface water.

That is the chief concern of environmentalists: Sulfide deposits will leach into water and cause long-lasting damage.

The last such mine in Wisconsin, near Ladysmith, was closed and reclaimed in 1999. But environmentalists point to copper and zinc pollution in a small stream on the site as evidence that the Flambeau mine remains a source of pollution.

Outvoting Democrats Wednesday, GOP backers of the bill made a number of changes to it in the committee.

The current law requires that a company seeking to develop a mine must prove to state officials that another mine in the United States or Canada operated for 10 years and was closed for 10 years without polluting groundwater or surface water.

Under the amended bill, a mining company would have to show that the corporation was capable of running a mine that complied with environmental laws and didn’t pollute.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said lawmakers were turning the state’s environment into a testing laboratory by removing the requirement that the mining technology and approaches be proven elsewhere.

But Tiffany said this new standard would make more allowance for emerging technologies and approaches.