October 17, 2013
To Maine Board of Environmental Protection
Subject: Testimony, Mining
Regulations
Chairman Jeff Crawford, members of
the board, thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Alice Bolstridge. I was born and grew up in Portage Lake,
Maine, not far from Bald Mountain. I
remember the debate of the 90s about the feasibility of an open pit mine at
that site, and I remember the conclusion then that an open-pit mine there would
be an environmental disaster.
My memory is supported by files of
the Department of Environmental Protection from that time which state that open
pit mining of Bald Mountain would likely pollute rivers, lakes and streams with sulfuric acid runoff and arsenic
pollution and would produce only 80-130 jobs at best, not the estimated 700
that JD Irving promises.
I have heard an Irving
spokesperson and other proponents of the proposed new mining rules claim that
technical progress makes open-pit mining safe now. I am not a scientist, but I am a good
researcher. I have been researching this
issue for over a year and have not found evidence that supports those claims.
The DEP denies in a BDN article that they hid this
information from lawmakers and the public, but they do not cite any evidence
there that they provided the information, and they do not cite evidence that the
claims about pollution or the economic consequences are untrue. All evidence I trust indicates that we in
Aroostook County will bear the environmental consequences of an open-pit mine at
Bald Mountain and that all Maine taxpayers will bear the economic consequences
of clean up long after the miners and the corporate profits have gone. Indeed, we will be paying the costs for
generations to come.
The tobacco industry denied for generations that smoking is
hazardous to human health, to preserve profits.
The football industry denies mounting evidence that concussion trauma
causes permanent brain disease to football players, to preserve profits. The fossil fuel industries still try to deny that
carbon emissions cause global warming, to preserve profits. If these proposed regulations are passed as
written, the DEP and lawmakers who vote for them are in denial about the environmental
hazards, for the hope of corporate profit.
Please, look at all the evidence. The proposed mining rules from DEP do not adequately
protect water, air, or wildlife from
mining pollution. nor do they protect Maine taxpayers from the cost of
cleanup.
If the claims about environmental safety made by the
proponents of open-pit mining are really true, why do we need to weaken the environmental
protections written in the rules of 1991?
Alice Bolstridge
