At the Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace, members of groups concerned about metallic sulfide and uranium mining take their first steps on a march through town Sunday evening, August 31. The group trekked 175 miles across the U.P. to St. Ignace, held a rally and a march through town Sunday, and crossed the Mackinac Bridge during the Labor Day Bridge Walk Monday. Walkers who crossed the U.P. to bring awareness to mining concerns, ending in St. Ignace last weekend, said they had received positive support from the public, and only one negative comment.

Cynthia Prior, executive director of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, was among walkers who spoke at a rally at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace Sunday, August 31. She and a group of citizens had just finished a 175- mile walk across the Upper Peninsula to promote awareness about the potential effects of sulfide and uranium mines proposed in the U.P. They walked to St. Ignace from the site in Marquette County proposed for the first metallic sulfide mine in the state.

At left: Margaret Comfort, initiator of a 175-mile trek across the Upper Peninsula to promote awareness about the potential effects of sulfide and uranium mining, displays an image of contamination in Ontario from sulfide mining. The image, which shows dissolved metal flowing in water, is one which first inspired her to take action in Michigan, she said. She is pictured at a rally in St. Ignace at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture Sunday evening, August 31. The group represented a variety organizations who believe these mines, if approved, would threaten the environment, watersheds in particular, and damage the tourist economy of the region. They held rallies along the way to promote their concerns about sulfide and uranium mining.

They set up tables and signs at the museum in St. Ignace Sunday, and then marched through town.

Monday, they crossed the Mackinac Bridge during the Labor Day Bridge Walk, all wearing blue shirts that read "Protect our Water from Uranium and Metallic Sulfide Mining." Signs are prohibited during the Bridge Walk.

The group says it is concerned about a proposal by Kennecott Minerals Corporation to mine for sulfide rock near Big Bay. While standard mines extract raw ore from the ground, metallic sulfide mines extract sulfuric rock filled with dissolved metal. When exposed to oxygen, sulfide rock emits sulfuric acid, like the acid in car batteries, and has the potential to contaminate watersheds. The groups are concerned that discharges could contaminate Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

Sulfide mining was banned in Wisconsin because of toxic discharges.

As they crossed the U.P., the group learned that awareness of the issue is mixed, said Margaret Comfort, who developed the idea for the walk. Some residents and tourists had heard about Kennecott's proposal, and some had not.

Concerns range from affects on wildlife, to water, to economics. Some disliked the fact that multinational corporations, rather than American corporations, are planning the mines. Kennecott is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, an international corporation based in England.

For her, the walk's focus was on protecting water and human health, said Ms. Comfort.

The walkers received one negative response: a thumbs-down in Munising from a driver who said, "We need jobs."

"I don't disagree with him at all," Ms. Comfort said. "I've been unemployed. I'm seriously in debt. I wanted to stay in Michigan, but I could not find a job here." In response to the driver's sentiment, she presented her favorite poster, which reads, "Temporary Jobs. Temporary Health Insurance. Permanent Illness."

The poster refers to health damage from mining pollution, she explained.

The country should be making use of its landfills for metal, she said, rather than focusing on new mines.

The group heard concerns that developing a sulfide mining belt here will damage the tourism economy, and some campers and fishermen told them they are concerned about environmental damage.

The group failed to get a meeting with Governor Jennifer Granholm after the Bridge Walk, but hopes to schedule one in Marquette, Ms. Mills said.

Sponsors of the walk included the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Keepers of the Water, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, and Save the Wild U.P.