At Michipicoten Bay (Wawa, Ontario), according to the Spring-Summer - 2003 Lake Superior Alliance Superior Vision newsletter, "Lands used formerly to store and ship ore and wastes for the now closed Algoma Ore Division mine and processing plant have been sold to the Carlo Companies, a U.S. contracting and roadbuilding conglomerate. Carlo has formed a local subsidiary, Superior Aggregates, whose proposal is to strip the 1,000 acre site of soil, vegetation and timber, and then drill, blast and crush the coastal rock into aggregate for shipment by freighter to Michigan for use in highway construction."

Citizens in Canada and the U.S. are concerned about this scheme. As Michigan residents, we deplore the idea that a Michigan company would blast the Lake Superior shoreline and haul away the rubble to simply use it in highway construction here. Besides the aesthetics and ethics issues, many questions about the environmental impact come to mind. For example, what toxic chemicals are already in the lands formerly used to store ore and wastes from a mining venture? The iron sintering plant at Wawa produced a large "fume kill"--sulfur dioxide, arsenic and other metals killed virtually everything over a fan-shaped area 12+ miles in length. We question what persistent toxic chemicals are in the rubble that will be blasted, ground, shipped, and distributed on highways. What will the effects be on the area's groundwater, streams, and Lake Superior? And then there are erosion impacts, dust and noise pollution, and even the physical danger in the estimated "maximum fly rock range" of 294 meters (this in an area of activity as close as 75 meters to Lake Superior).

According to the Winter-Spring - 2004 Lake Superior Alliance Superior Vision newsletter, "Though the site is designated as Great Lakes Heritage Coast and thus targeted for environmental protection and eco-tourism, this is not enough to protect it. The mine site is also bounded by the Michipicoten First Nation. Currently the area is not zoned for mining. The local municipality, the township of Michipicoten is proceeding with rezoning process, a process which seems to favor Superior Aggregates with its promise of 14 jobs."

The Lake Superior Waterkeeper and Waterkeeper President Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have asked the Ontario Minister of Environment to designate this project as requiring an Environmental Assessment under Ontario's Environmental Assessment Act. The letter from the Lake Superior Waterkeeper states: "As Waterkeepers, we believe that citizens have a right and obligation to participate in fair and transparent planning processes. In the instance of the trap rock quarry proposed at Michipicoten Bay, we believe that this fundamental right is being threatened. We do not believe that all the facts are being taken into consideration in the approval of this facility. Worse, we further suspect that certain key information is being withheld by the proponent, such that the community cannot clearly evaluate the full impact of the proposed facility."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s letter states: "The EAA [Environmental Assessment Act] was clearly intended to safeguard the responsible use and long-term sustainability of Ontario's natural resources, particularly with respect to undertakings such as this quarry, which pose serious local, national and international pollution threats that seem to stretch beyond the scope and purview of other municipal and provincial regulatory processes. The Act affords the citizens of Ontario, as well as international visitors and users of Ontario's Lake Superior coast, a thorough and transparent planning process."