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WildEarth Guardians to Sue Kennecott Over Clean Air Violations
WildEarth Guardians to Sue Kennecott Over Clean Air Violations
Physicians and Moms: “Illegal mining is compromising the health of Wasatch Front residents.”
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303
Additional Contacts:
Brian Moench, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, (801) 243-9089
Cherise Udell, Utah Moms for Clean Air, (510) 306-6963
Salt Lake City(UT)–A coalition of doctors, moms, health, and environmental groups today putKennecott Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, on notice of an impending lawsuitover the company’s failure to protect clean air.
At issue are ongoing clean air violations at Kennecott’sBingham Canyon Copper Mine, the world’s largest open pit copper mine located inwestern Salt Lake County in the Oquirrh Mountains. For at least the last five years, the company has violatedits federal limits on ore and waste rock production. These production limits were put in place in 1994 to curbparticulate matter emissions and meet health standards.
“Every Wasatch Front resident knows that our air pollution is often severe, andoccasionally the worst in the nation. Rio Tinto, as a major contributorto this problem, is literally mining away our clean air, and they are doing itillegally,” said Dr. Brian Moench with the Utah Physicians for a HealthyEnvironment.
“Thehealth and prosperity of our communities depends on clean air,” said CheriseUdell, founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air. “All we are asking is thatKennecott pay the true cost of doing their business and not cheat by hoistingthose costs unto our children.”
Conservative estimates show that 1,000 – 2,000 Utahns die prematurely everyyear because of air pollution. These levels of pollution also shorten the lifespan of everyone one of us about two years, said Dr. Cris Cowley, VicePresident of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
“In revealing the significant health consequences of air pollution, new medicalscience has become so compelling in the last few years that it is clear ourpolicies on polluting industries have to change,” said Cowley. “But our stateagencies who are supposed to protect us have demonstrated they are unwilling todo so. In that absence, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environmentstrongly feels it is our obligation to step forward and ask the courts toprotect the health of our patients and Utah families.”
“We now know thatair pollution causes the same broad spectrum of diseases as cigarette smoke,and yet we are forcing our children to breathe this awful air,” said Dr. EllieBrownstein. “As a pediatrician I can no longer remain silent and allowthis to happen to our children and my patients. The air pollution our children breathe while they are youngdamages their health for the rest of their lives.”
In 1994, Kennecott agreed to limit production at its Bingham Canyon Mine to150,500,000 tons of ore and waste rock every year to minimize airpollution. This limit was approved by the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency and adopted into federal regulations. However, every year since2006 Rio Tinto has violated this production limit, reaching levels as high as192,684,252 in 2009 — more than 40 million tons above the limit allowed.
Although Rio Tinto has claimed that production increases were authorized by theState of Utah, the increases were never approved by the EnvironmentalProtection Agency nor were the air quality impacts analyzed to ensurecompliance with federal health standards which are currently being violated byseveral Wasatch Front counties.
“Not only was the 1999 increase illegal, so too is the recent approval by theUtah Division of Air Quality of Rio Tinto’s application to increase theirproduction to 260 million tons, a 75% increase over the legal limit,” saidJeremy Nichols, the Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarthGuardians. “The Environmental Protection Agency has expressed numerous concernsover the state’s plan and has yet to approve the increase. Put simply, Kennecott is mining morethan it is allowed and that has to stop.”
Under the provisions of theClean Air Act, citizens and citizen groups can sue to enforce violations infederal court, but first have to give at least 60-days notice topolluters. Today, WildEarthGuardians, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Utah Moms for Clean Air,and the Sierra Club joined forced to put Kennecott on notice that if theviolations at the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine are not resolved within 60 days,that the groups intend to file suit to stop them.