http://mountainsofwisconsin.onza.net/
"The Mining Bill Will Tax You; It Might Take Your Home Too"
by Kevin O'Connell
Wisconsinite Kevin O'Connell is calling our state to help take a stand against Florida based mining company Gogebic Taconite and their push for us to change our mining laws. A few changes in our laws would allow them to mine iron ore from the Penokee Mtn. Range.
Of our current mining laws, written just a few years ago,O'Connell says "...we seem to have done pretty well by them to this point. The state is in fact undergoing a mining bonanaza currently, as Wisconsin's clean sandstone is being brought up by the trainload by the oil, and natural gas industry. However, a Florida company, Gogebic Taconite, wishes us to change our laws so that they may make a good profit taking the iron that is locked up in one of the only real mountain ranges that we have in wisconsin, destroying it in the process."
On the surface, a new mining operation might sound like a good thing for Wisconsin, but if we dig deeper into the issue the author points out what starting an operation of this magnitued entails, and maybe more importantly, will cost.
"For one thing for this mine to operate, the state will have to pour money into infrastructure such as new schools, sewage treatment plants, hospitals and clinics, police and fire departments, utility lines, roads, and a big new local government bureaucracy to administer the whole thing. No doubt the cost will be at least a billion dollars to start."
Unfortunately for Wisconsin, it is a state rich in many mineable minerals, such as zinc, lead, copper, silver, and gold. The article continues on as a hypothetical- a slippery slope account of what could happen to our state if we let down our "barriers against irresponsible mining." Madison and Mt. Horeb, from Green Bay to Lake Geneva, Oshkosh, Appleton, Baraboo, Devil's Lake State Park, Wausau all turned into pits, homes destroyed, our state stripped and left naked and broken. But hey, it would bring jobs to Wisconsin, right?
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