Thanks to the dutiful efforts of several citizens concerned that no public comment period had been offered in advance of granting a storm water permit to ORC for mining operations any permit will be withheld. Spoke with Vaughn Balzer at DOGAMI who confirmed the public would be properly notified, given time to review materials and then comment before a storm water permit is granted to ORC along the haul roads of their proposed mining operations.
Balzer has indicated he will make materials available at the local DEQ office in Coos County. Comment period is not open ended, obviously but this is a great opportunity to put some brakes on what appears to be a runaway train.
Julie Jones a member of Bandon Woodlands Community Association a group dedicated to maintaining the quality of life in the woodland environment now being threatened by proposed chromite strip mining was instrumental in this action. Jones and BWCA have been tracking the ORC permitting process from the beginning and knew they should have been notified of a public comment period for the storm water permits but were not. Jones persisted and DOGAMI will now establish a public comment period before any permit is granted.
DOGAMI works under a Memorandum of Agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and will be monitoring the treatment of water runoffs in the mining process that have the potential to damage fragile wetlands and woodland streams. Thanks to Julie Jones for her persistence
At MGx when discussing serious subjects we hope to maintain informed commentary. Regrettably, so keep from wasting time and creating nothing but agita I have banned a poster common to The World Forum. That forum may not care whether the public is provided as much accurate information as possible in order to make informed decisions but at this blog, we do.
Regrettably, I have had to censor a uninformed comment by a poster on this topic. Given the importance of this issue and the impact of this project on the Coastal Zone Management Act and the funds provided to the area as a consequence of coastal zoning, false or misleading comments will not be tolerated. To the poster, this is your first and last warning
No Steve, its about having a proper “Public Process” where citizens are actually allowed to participate and have their voices heard instead of decisions being made (rubber stamped) in the backroom….
Talk about a classic case of Obstructionism.