September 16, 2020
Dear Chairman Wooster and members of the Land Use Planning Commission:
For nearly 5 years, I was involved as a volunteer foot
soldier in the struggle to save Bald Mountain in my home-town area from water
pollution and other environmental, health, social, and economic damages of
metallic mining. Now Wolfden Mining Company poses a similar threat to Pickett
Mountain alarmingly close to my home area, and is petitioning the LUPC to
rezone the area to allow metallic mining. I write to urge you to deny WMC their
requests to “exclude from its evaluation of ZP 779 considerations that the MDEP
Chapter 200 rules address, including noise, financial practicability, waste
disposal at the mine, surface water quality, groundwater quality, and avoidance
or mitigation of impacts on natural resources.”
I know workers in the original exploration of Bald Mountain
in the 1970s who were sickened just from the drilling. From extensive research
during the Bald Mountain threat, I know that mining massive sulfide deposits
anywhere in the world pollutes surrounding waters to such a degree that they
destroy an economy such as ours dependent on clean water for sustainable outdoor
sports of fishing and hunting. The highest paid miners are migrant, brought in
from outside and leaving when the mine closes. Any possible economic boom from
metallic mining is always temporary, leaving the area as soon as the metals are
depleted or the company goes bankrupt and leaving behind a legacy of social
disruption and pollution that extends into perpetuity.
I urge you to deny the WMC petition to rezone this area so
close to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
