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Utah's air-quality board has moved its monthly meeting to a larger venue this week in anticipation of a big turnout for a discussion on a pollution permit change that would allow Kennecott Utah Copper to expand the Bingham Canyon Mine.
The meeting is set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the state Office Building auditorium, 450 N. State St., Salt Lake City.
Environmentalists say the state should not grant the permits if it means any additional pollution in a valley that sometimes fails to meet federal air-quality standards. Meanwhile, staff of the Utah Division of Air Quality say the permit change — the first of what are expected to be more than two dozen environmental permit requests from Kennecott — should be approved.
Kennecott wants to add nine years to the mine's productive life by extending its perimeter south in the Oquirrh Mountains and digging deeper for ore. Doing that would mean moving more rock to get to the copper, gold, silver and molybdenum, up to 260 million tons a year compared with the 197 million tons currently allowed.
And that means more pollution, although the company said it has already found ways to cut emissions related to the additional mining. The company says there will be a net pollution decrease of 9 percent, while environmentalists contend pollution will increase as much as 30 percent.
On Thursday, Kennecott released its 2010 Sustainable Development Report, which details the efforts to reduce its impact on the environment. The report is available online at http://www.kennecott.com.