LAKE LINDEN, MI-- The Buffalo Reef Task Force is meeting later this month to discuss methods of managing copper mine tailings that threaten fish spawning habitat.
Buffalo Reef sits just off the mouth of the Big Traverse River in Houghton County. The tailings, known as stamp sands, have been moving from Gay south along the shoreline and toward the reef. The sands threaten critical whitefish and lake trout spawning sites on the reef.
Earlier this year the task force sought public input on a draft analysis of the situation and released a summary of the alternatives to address it. In June the group honed down 13 alternatives to three: maintenance dredging at the Grand Traverse Harbor and an underwater trough area, with a stone revetment built to retain the stamp sands; dredging the entire area with disposal of the stamp sands in a newly constructed landfill to be located nearby; or dredging 15 million cubic yards of stamp sands with disposal in the White Pine Mine tailings basin in Ontonagon County.
Officials are requesting public input on the final alternatives at a meeting at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School July 31 at 6 p.m.
Maintenance dredging has been ongoing this summer in the harbor and the trough area to buy time to develop a long-term solution to the stamp sands issue.
