Public Commenting Period For GTAC Bulk Sampling Proposal Ends

The public comment period for bulk rock sampling at a proposed iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin ended Tuesday.

Department of Natural Resources Waste and Materials Management Director Ann Coakley says they received several hundred comments about a Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) proposal to sample some 4,000 tons of rock in Iron and Ashland Counties. She says it will take some time to tally the number for and against it, and list the citizen concerns about what needs to be examined if bulk sampling takes place.

But the DNR does have deadlines. After they compile this information, they’ll meet with GTAC officials about any more information the state will need. That would include stormwater run-off and possibly air quality from dust or use of explosives on the rock.

All of that could take a couple more weeks for GTAC to finish its application, which it started in June. After that’s done, there will be another 30 days for the DNR to review GTAC’s application and make a decision.

At a public hearing in Hurley last month, DNR Hydrogeologist Larry Lynch said he thinks the earliest GTAC could begin rock sampling is late November or December.