Task force seeks public comment on plan to protect Lake Superior's Buffalo Reef

UPPER PENINSULA — On Jan. 30, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources released its Buffalo Reef Task Force alternatives analysis for public comment.

The analysis assesses the final options selected as ways to dispose of stamp sands that are threatening valuable fish spawning and rearing habitat in and around the 2,200-acre Buffalo Reef, situated off the eastern coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula.

Stamp sands are waste products from copper mining performed on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the 18th and early 20th centuries. Copper ore was mined from the Mohawk and Wolverine mines, transported to the nearby community of Gay along Lake Superior, and processed using stamping machinery to crush the rocks and remove the copper. The remaining material, called stamp sand, was dumped on the beach and into the lake. Copper made up only 1-2 percent of the rocks mined, so about 98-99 percent of the material became coarse black sand left at the mill sites along the lakeshore.

Copper mining in the U.P. may have ended in 1932, but the sands remain. Before the mills closed, they generated 22.7 million metric tons of stamp sand. Since then, lake currents and winds have drifted the stamp sands from the processing plants to Buffalo Reef, about five miles south. There, the sands threaten to cover crucial spawning habitat for Lake Superior whitefish and lake trout.

Today, of the 22.7 million tons of stamp sand deposited, about 10 million tons are located along the shoreline, and the remaining 12.7 million tons are in the lake. About 1,426 acres of shoreline and lake bottom are currently covered by stamp sands.

Buffalo Reef is already partially covered by stamp sands. The reef, not made of coral but made of rocks, is vital for lake trout and whitefish spawning, yet modeling predicts that by the year 2025, 60 percent of the reef will no longer be viable for fish spawning. Commercial and recreational fishing enterprises in and around the reef (activities that normally produce about $4.5 million annually) have noticed a significant decline in their catches in the region. This decline will continue as time passes unless something is done to remove the stamp sands.

Stamp sands threaten vital ecosystems in and around the submerged Buffalo Reef in two ways. First, the sands fill in the cracks and holes between rocks along the lake bottom that whitefish and trout like to spawn in, reducing or eliminating the ideal spawning habitat.

Second, because the stamp sands still have a relatively high copper content, the heavy metal in the sand kills critical organisms that newly hatched fish need to feed on to survive.

“The concentrations of copper are high,” said Dr. Charles Kerfoot, PH.D. at Michigan Technological University's Great Lakes Research Center. “Stamp sands have 1,500 parts per million of copper — 120 parts per million can have ecological effects. You’re dealing with orders of magnitude here.”

What does that mean for organisms that live on the reef, especially the benthic, or bottom-feeding, lifeforms that lake trout and whitefish rely on for food?

“We can determine percent stamp sand and then plot it out,” said Kerfoot. “There’s a very serious effect at 50 percent stamp sands concentration on the reef. By 75 percent concentration, it’s a desert. There’s just nothing down there and nothing living down there. The high copper concentrations are killing the organisms off.”

If the stamp sands continue their advance across the reef, one of the most effective reefs for fish spawning in the Great Lakes will be lost. In the next 10 years, Kerfoot predicts that 33 percent of whitefish and lake trout in and around the reef will be lost if nothing is done.

Scientists and engineers are racing against the sand, Lake Superior’s currents and time to save Buffalo Reef. What should be done with all that stamp sand? The Buffalo Reef Task Force has decided to pursue the construction of an upland landfill for the disposal of stamp sands removed from the Lake Superior shoreline as its preferred course of action.

The project faces challenges, like acquiring property and finding an agency committed to owning and maintaining associated project features. Still, the task force feels this approach is the best one of the initial 13 options under examination since 2019.

The cost estimate for the chosen approach is projected at $2.1 billion over the length of the project timeline.

The three finalist options considered by the Task Force included:

• Hauling the material to the mine tailings basins at the former White Pine Mine in Ontonagon County.

• Building an in-lake barricade around the original stamp sands pile to contain it.

• Disposing of stamp sand in a nearby upland landfill.

The Task Force eliminated two of the final three options for several reasons.

“Placement of dredged material at the White Pine mine tailings basin involves high cost, no infrastructure at the former mine for freighter access, and it’s not feasible to truck it there on existing roads,” said Jay Parent, district supervisor of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Water Resources Division in Marquette.

The option of continuously maintaining, dredging and moving stamp sand into and behind a stone revetment surrounding the original deposit was also rejected.

“It is the lowest cost alternative,” Parent said. “But a significant negative is the material would remain on the lake bottom and the two-mile-long revetment would have to be maintained forever.”

Prospects are grim if action is not taken to clean up the stamp sands.

“Fishing has always been a big part of who we are. Even if you’re not out fishing on the waters, somebody in your family is. There’s somebody bringing fish back to your house,” said Evelyn Ravindran, Natural Resources Director for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

“Buffalo Reef is one of the three big reefs in our home waters. They make up the majority of spawning areas for lake trout and whitefish. People were noticing that there weren’t as many fish there. But this is a habitat issue. It’s not overfishing. The stamp sands are continuing to cover the reef. If we don’t do something about it we’ll have the complete loss of the reef, and there won’t be an area for the spawning of lake trout and whitefish,” Ravindran said.

Public comments are being accepted through March 1 on the selected option and alternative options for protecting Buffalo Reef. The Buffalo Reef Task Force will discuss and consider all public comments received.

Interested parties are asked to direct their comments to Stephanie Swart, Great Lakes Management Unit, Water Resources Division, at SwartS@Michigan.gov, or by U.S. Mail at EGLE, Water Resources Division, Great Lakes Management Unit, P.O. Box 30458, Lansing, MI 48909-7958.

More information on the draft alternatives analysis, data on the effort to save Buffalo Reef and an email sign-up option to receive updates can be found at Michigan.gov/BuffaloReef.

Ren Brabenec is a Brimley-based freelance writer and journalist with The Sault News. He reports on politics, local issues, environmental stories, and the economy. For questions, comments, or to suggest a story, email hello@renbrabenec.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Buffalo Reef Task Force seeks public comment