By Nicole Walton
Marquette County, MI – The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has reached a settlement with two U.P. mining companies for illegally dumping tailings.
The DNRE has entered into an agreement with Tilden Mine Company and Empire Iron Mining Partnership to resolve the discharge of ore waste in unauthorized locations in Marquette County between 2008 and 2009.
Under the agreement, the mines are required to clean up all eight deposits; identify the locations of any pre-2008 tailings discharges; propose remediation activity to address those discharges; and replace the Tilden tailings pipeline. The companies will also have to pay a $51,000 civil fine and reimburse the DNRE more than $4,000 in investigation costs.
The Tilden and Empire mines have spent $8.4 million so far to clean up the tailings deposits and replace pipelines to prevent any future unauthorized discharges.