Plan to protect Buffalo Reef from mining waste soon to be unveiled, still needs funding
Hayley HardingOfficials are preparing to unveil plans to contain or remove stamp sands mining waste in Lake Superior that is threatening fish.
The waste, which consists of copper mine tailings — coarser, unstable sands that contain a high concentration of copper and can disrupt fish's breeding grounds and food chains, according to Michigan Technological University — from two Upper Peninsula mines, threatens spawning habitat of lake trout and whitefish.
The stamp sands have since moved because of currents and wind, sending them south down the shoreline and posing a threat for the fish near Buffalo Reef, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The reef is in Grand Traverse Bay in Lake Superior on the eastern side of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Buffalo Reef contributes "approximately 30% of the lake trout harvested within 50 miles of the reef," according to the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, indicating the toll of not saving the reef would be significant.
Those wastes could cover the 2,200-acre reef if no action is taken, threatening the fish as well as the industries the fish support. As much as 60% of Buffalo Reef will no longer be viable for spawning by 2025, modeling from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources shows.
That also takes a toll on local tribes. Warren C. Swartz Jr., then-president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, said in 2017 testimony before the U.S. Senate that the resources provided by Lake Superior "sustain their communities."
"This sustenance is not only physical; it is also spiritual, cultural, medicinal and economic," Swartz's testimony continued.
To save the reef, there have been several plans forwarded by the Buffalo Reef Task Force, the multiagency group charged with trying to decide on the best way to fix the problem. The plans have been narrowed down from 13 in 2019 to three finalists.
The first of those plans is to dredge the harbor with a stone retaining wall in place. The wall "would be constructed to prevent further erosion of existing stamp sands due to wave action and would provide a placement site for material already in the lake or on the beach that would be dredged, as needed, in the future," according to the 2019 report on the plans.
The second plan suggests dredging everything and putting in a newly constructed landfill near the community of Gay in Keweenaw County, while the third suggests also dredging and then placing the stamp sands in the former White Pine Mine located in Ontonagon County.
Engineers and scientists have worked to develop cost estimates for each of the plans and looked at risks and benefits of each one, the Department of Natural Resources said in a news release.
The Michigan DNR plans to unveil the final plan at a public meeting July 12. Representatives from the task force will talk about the preferred plan, according a news release, and what next steps are.
That includes finding a nonfederal sponsor and additional funding sources, said Jay Parent, district supervisor for the Michigan Department of Great Lakes, Environment, and Energy’s Upper Peninsula District Office in Marquette.
So far, the effort has been funded by a combination of state and tribal funds as well as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a group that works to protect the Great Lakes through conservation efforts.
Others involved include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Bay Indian Community and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
“The scope of our plan may also change as the project matures," Parent said.
The public meeting on the project is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 12 at Lake Linden-Hubble High School, 601 Calumet St., in Lake Linden.
Twitter: @Hayley__Harding