PATTEN, Maine — A Canadian firm is encouraging cities within the Pickett Mountain space to undertake ordinances supporting its proposed mining challenge.
Wolfden Assets desires to make use of the ordinances as proof of native help when it seeks a state allow to mine metallic minerals.
Wolfden Assets, an Ontario-based funding group, desires to construct a mine on 600 acres in northern Penobscot County, near the border with Aroostook County and the Katahdin Woods and Waters Nationwide Monument. The corporate guarantees 300 or extra jobs to a rural space the place employment may be scarce, however environmentalists are involved the corporate’s wastewater therapy plan just isn’t ample to guard wildlife and fisheries. The challenge is the primary actual check of Maine’s strict mining regulation.
A bunch of about 55 Patten-area residents gathered on the city storage Wednesday night to listen to shows from Wolfden, in addition to opposition from the Pure Assets Council of Maine. An identical assembly was held in Hersey in mid-June. Moro Plantation is close by as nicely. The Patten Board of Selectmen took no motion on account of the presentation.
The corporate was searching for public help on the mining challenge earlier than investing between $10 million and $15 million in extra research and analysis, together with on the affect to soil and water qualities and to the fisheries and wildlife, Jeremy Ouellette, vice chairman of challenge growth for Wolfden Assets, stated through the assembly.
Maine’s mining laws are among the many strictest on the planet, and his firm would do the whole lot doable to satisfy these requirements, Ouellette stated.
“Wolfden is ready to and ready to comply with these laws,” he stated. “By doing that, Patten, and Maine on the whole, may be the shining star within the mining trade.”
Ouellette stated the challenge would create upward of 300 jobs for the native financial system, which got here as welcome information to a number of within the viewers, in addition to to the Board of Selectmen.
The challenge has confronted stark opposition from environmentalists, particularly the Pure Useful resource Council of Maine. Nick Bennett, a workers scientist with the NRCM who focuses on water high quality, stated he had grave considerations about Wolfden’s skill to satisfy the stringent water processing and discharge requirements that come up from extracting the dear metals from the bottom.
Bennett stated Wolfden has but to supply any examples of a mine anyplace on the planet that may deal with water on the degree required by Maine’s strict legal guidelines, nor have they confirmed their very own system will work successfully.
Wolfden’s plans for holding and storing the discharge embrace discovering a 50-acre parcel of land after which stacking the “tailings” — a by-product of mining consisting of the processed rock or soil left over from the separation of the dear minerals — in a number of layers, every protected with a barrier to forestall seepage into the bottom, Ouellette stated.
That pile, which might be upward of twenty-two toes excessive, can be lined with soil and planted with grass and different vegetation on the finish of the mining.
Earlier than Wolfden could make any progress, it should resubmit its rezoning utility to the Land Use Planning Fee for overview. Mining just isn’t an allowed use within the space together with Pickett Mountain, so the fee must change the zoning to permit it.
The corporate submitted a revised utility to the fee in September 2021, however voluntarily withdrew it once they discovered the LUPC had deliberate to disclaim it as a result of Wolfden wanted to show that its wastewater therapy plan would work.
If rezoning is profitable, the corporate will search a allow from the Maine Division of Environmental Safety to pursue the mine. The allow course of may take a number of years.
Sentiments have been blended at Wednesday’s assembly. Some folks within the viewers, in addition to members of the Patten Board of Selectmen, welcomed the financial alternatives the mine would carry.
“Individuals are making an attempt to pay their taxes and discover jobs,” stated Selectman Rebecca Phillips. “We’re a really low- to moderate-income neighborhood. If we don’t herald trade, we’re going to die on the vine. I don’t need something hazardous for my grandchildren, however there might not be any children left right here as a result of there isn’t a trade.”
These opposed anxious that such a enterprise would without end harm the pristine nature of the area, particularly contemplating a lot effort has been put into making the Katahdin Woods and Waters Nationwide Monument a vacationer attraction.
