UPDATE: Eagle Mine lawsuit forthcoming against EPA
The environmental group intending to sue the federal government over the Eagle Mine project says the lawsuit is just the first step of a broad plan to address issues at the mine.
Save The Wild U.P. and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community member Jeffery Loman, have filed notice to sue the Environmental Protection Agency.
The lawsuit would involve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act at the Eagle Mine.
Save The Wild U.P. says it’s calling for a federal corruption probe of the state of Michigan and mining company executives.
“It seems that the citizens of Marquette County and Upper Michigan have been asking for this federal oversight for a while,” Save The Wild U.P. vice president Kathleen Heideman said. “In order to go forward, we actually have to look back and see how Rio Tinto managed to slip outside of federal oversight to begin with.”
The group is circulating a petition asking for a Justice Department investigation.
Rio Tinto is in the process of selling the Eagle Mine to Toronto-based Lundin Mining.
ABC 10 attempted to speak with Rio Tinto officials for this story but have received no reply from the company.