Come join the Menominee Nation, concerned citizens, and us on January 23 to voice your opposition to Aquila’s proposed Back Forty mine, the date of the public hearing on the wetlands permit.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS
Kathleen Heideman, Mining Action Group, info@savethewildup.org (906) 662-0037
Nathan Frischkorn, Mining Action Group, frischkornnathan@gmail.com (906) 251-0113
Gregg Bruff, UPEC Coordinator, gregg.upec@gmail.com (906) 201-1949

Concerned Citizens Fight to Protect Menominee River Wetlands from Sulfide Mine

The Mining Action Group of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC), in collaboration with regional environmental allies and fishing organizations, has secured independent, third party reviews of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty Wetland permit application. If granted, this permit would authorize the destruction and impairment of wetlands caused by the Back Forty mine.

“Aquila proposes to destroy wetlands in order to build a sulfide mine on the bank of the Menominee River. Is this a good idea? We don’t think so, given the proximity of wetlands to the river, and concerns about the company’s plan to follow the orebody deeper underground. This site is quite complex, hydrologically, with wetlands surrounding the facility. We believe that wetland impacts may be significantly underestimated, since additional years of underground mining would greatly increase the groundwater drawdown. To help protect the Menominee River watershed, we have secured two independent reviews of this permit,” said Kathleen Heideman, UPEC board member and a member of the Mining Action Group (MAG).

The Wetland permit was public noticed on December 8th, and the Public Comment is now open. A Public Hearing has been scheduled for January 23, 2018 at 6:00 P.M. The hearing will take place in the small gym at the Stephenson High School, W526 Division Street, Stephenson, MI 49887.

A red flag review will be conducted by Dr. Kendra Zamzow of the Center for Science in Public Participation (CSP2), which analyzes mining applications and provides objective research and technical advice to communities impacted by mining. The permit will also be reviewed by Dr. Tom Myers, a hydrologic consultant who works with conservation organizations and others on mining, natural gas, and water rights development, with specific interests in contaminants and mine dewatering.

“These technical reviews will help us identify whether there are any errors or inconsistencies between groundwater data and Aquila’s predicted impacts to wetlands, and assist our grassroots effort to ensure that concerned citizens, stakeholders and regulators are fully informed as to the true impacts of this permit,” said Nathan Frischkorn, a Fellow with the Mining Action Group.

A broad coalition of fishing groups, local residents, tribal members and environmental groups are united in their opposition to the Aquila Back Forty project. Downstream communities and residents are concerned about the potential impacts to drinking water and tourism, and have passed resolutions against the project. Marinette County unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Back Forty; additional resolutions of opposition have been passed by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the Oneida Nation, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes, the towns of Porterfield, Wagner and Peshtigo, and the city of Marinette. On the Wisconsin side of the river, counties opposed to the project include Door County, Oconto County, Shawano County, Menominee County, and Brown County, which includes the city of Green Bay. After concerned citizens levied significant pressure on local officials, Menominee County became the first county in Michigan to pass a resolution opposed to the Back Forty mine. Of deep concern are downstream impacts to fisheries and water quality, since the Menominee River flows into Lake Michigan.

“The Menominee River is my friend. Since my brother and I were first introduced to the river’s terrific bass fishing by my friend Dave, I’ve taken multiple two and three day fishing trips on the Menominee every summer. It gives me and my fishing friends a lot of excitement when those bass, especially the big ones, are seen and when they strike at our flies. The Menominee is a valuable resource that shouldn’t be damaged or destroyed, which is why I’m working to protect it from the problems the proposed Back Forty mine would cause. I don’t want to lose the river to a polluting metallic sulfide mine,” said Dick Dragiewicz, an avid fisherman.

If fully permitted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Back Forty will be an 83 acre, 800 feet deep, open-pit sulfide mine. The mine site is located on the bank of the Menominee River, the largest watershed in the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan, only 100 feet from the water. Milling will take place on site – using cyanide and other chemicals – and waste will be stored on site, with some tailings waste remaining permanently. When mining is complete, the pit will be backfilled with waste rock and tailings, most of which is considered “reactive”, capable of producing acid mine drainage (AMD) when exposed to air and water. AMD devastates watersheds. It is difficult and expensive to remediate, and may continue leaching from the tailings for hundreds or thousands of years. In light of the extreme risk posed by this sulfide mining project, American Rivers included the Menominee River in their 2017 list of “America’s Most Endangered Rivers.”

The destruction of wetlands threatens not only the Menominee River, but Michigan and the Great Lakes. Michigan has lost about 4 million acres of wetlands since the early 1800s, or 40% of the total wetlands that covered the state before European colonization. According to a 2014 report by the DEQ, the state lost 41,000 acres between 1978 and 2005, or more than 1,000 acres per year on average. Wetlands are important ecosystems that provide many benefits, including water filtration, erosion and flood control, and essential habitat for a diverse array of species. Any damage to wetlands along the Menominee River would have a negative effect on not only the river, but on downstream communities as well.

Independent technical reviews of the Aquila Back Forty Wetland permit are made possible by the generous support of numerous groups and individuals concerned about the future health of the Menominee River. Working collaboratively, the Mining Action Group of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition and the Front 40 secured small grants and donations from Freshwater Future, Superior Watershed Partnership, the Western Mining Action Network, DuPage Rivers Fly Tyers (DRiFT), Northern Illinois Fly Tyers (NIFT), Badger Fly Fishers, M&M Great Lakes Sport Fisherman, Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance, Fly Fishers International, Great Lakes Council of Fly Fishers International, the Emerick Family Fund, and individual fishing enthusiasts throughout the Great Lakes area.

The Wetland Permit application materials are available for download and review: https://miwaters.deq.state.mi.us/miwaters/#/external/publicnotice/info/3338938032851742207/documents

Concerned citizens may submit written comments to the DEQ through February 2, 2018: https://miwaters.deq.state.mi.us/miwaters/#/external/publicnotice/info/3338938032851742207/comments

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Founded in 1976, the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition’s purpose remains unchanged: to protect and maintain the unique environmental qualities of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by educating the public and acting as a watchdog to industry and government. UPEC is a nonprofit, registered 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, call 906-201-1949, see UPenvironment.org, visit our Facebook page, or contact: upec@upenvironment.org.

The UPEC Mining Action Group (MAG) is a grassroots effort to defend the clean water and wild places of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the dangers of sulfide mining. Contact the Mining Action Group at info@savethewildup.org or call (906) 662-9987. Learn more about the Mining Action Group at miningactiongroup.org or follow MAG’s work on Facebook or Twitter.

More information: http://bit.ly/SaveMenominee

The public comment period on the proposed Eagle East permit amendment came to a close at 5pm today. The Mining Action Group hosted two public comment workshops on Tuesday to help guide people through the process of crafting and submitting public comments. We thank everyone who submitted public comments and voiced their concern about this incomplete and misleading permit amendment application.

Our conclusion:
“We believe the Eagle East amendment application does not meet the requirements of Part 632. The applicant has provided an incomplete analysis of the proposed project’s cumulative Environmental Impacts. The proposed amendment attempts to circumvent Part 632’s environmental protections in connecting two distinctly different orebodies through a single mining permit, which deliberately masks, underestimates or fails to consider the project’s cumulative environmental impacts. The proposed amendment also fails to insure that additional mining will not “pollute, impair, or destroy the air, water or other natural resources or the public trust in these resources” as required by Part 632.

We formally request that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality reject the proposed Eagle East amendment request and attached EIA as misleading and technically inadequate, and because permit segmentation is being used in order to secure a new mining permit without full consideration of the environmental impacts. We are concerned that the Eagle East review has divided public consideration of the mining (jobs) from the most negative environmental impacts (waste, and further degradations of the Middle Branch of the Escanaba River, caused by industrial wastewater discharges).”

You can read MAG’s full public comments on the Eagle East permit amendment request here.

July 5, 2017

Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO
Orion Mine Finance Group
1211 Avenue of the Americas
Suite 3000
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Lewnowski,

I am once again writing in regard to Orion’s 19% investment in Aquila Resources’ Back 40 metallic sulfide project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Local and statewide
opposition to this project has grown considerably since my last update (November, 2016) and should be of great concern to your shareholders.

While Aquila now has three of the four permits for the project it still does not have the support of the people and communities that may be adversely affected by pollution from the proposed mine, including the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, that has filed a petition for a contested case hearing challenging the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) approval of the mining permit.

Since my last update several counties and townships downstream from the proposed mine have joined the Marinette County Board in passing resolutions urging the Michigan DEQ to deny permission for the mine. These include Brown and Menominee Counties in Wisconsin, the City of Peshtigo in Wisconsin, and the Towns of Porterfield and Wagner in Wisconsin. Door County in Wisconsin will be considering a resolution against the proposed mine at their next meeting. The headline from WeAreGreenBay.com (June 23, 2017) sums up the political sentiment succinctly: “Northeast Wisconsin county leaders making resolutions to condemn Back 40 Mine.”

In addition to the counties and townships opposed to the mine, there are ten tribal governments in Wisconsin and Michigan that have passed resolutions against the project. Seven intertribal organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), have also passed resolutions against the mine. The NCAI has promised to assist the Menominee Tribe to oppose the mine “through media exposure, governmental relations, and to support a call for Congressional oversight hearings to highlight the trust, policy and statutory responsibilities of federal agencies in these matters.”

The April 2017 designation of the Menominee River as one of the 10 most endangered rivers by the national conservation group, American Rivers, has given national visibility to local protests against the mine in Menominee, Michigan and Marinette, Wisconsin. In
announcing the designation of the Menominee River, American Rivers noted that “the proposed mine would pose a significant threat to the cultural and natural resources of the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region. Groundwater, rivers and ultimately Lake Michigan would become contaminated if acid mine drainage were to seep into surface and groundwater, posing a significant danger to fish and other aquatic life.”

If you have been reading the press releases from Aquila celebrating the progress of the permitting process, you may be surprised to learn that opposition to the project has been steadily growing to the point where Joe Maki, the head of the DEQ’s mining division has refused to participate in informational meetings before the Menominee and Marinette City Councils because he would rather avoid “a potentially hostile environment” (Penny Mullins, “City council hears mine talk,” Eagle-Herald, June 12, 2017). I have provided a sampling of the news coverage in this packet to document this political reality.

You may dismiss this growing opposition as irrelevant because Joe Maki has stated that public opposition will have no impact upon the mine permit decision. As long as Aquila meets the conditions of the permit requirements, they will be granted permission to mine.

As I pointed out in my last update, this perception is at odds with the growing realization within the mining industry that a social license to operate (SLO) “is an essential part of operating within democratic jurisdictions, as without popular support it is unlikely that agencies from elected governments will willingly grant operational permits or licenses” (Fraser Institute, “What is the Social Licence to Operate (SLO)?” 2012).

As early as 2003, Business for Social Responsibility warned investors “that where there was well-organized, significant opposition to a mining project, no matter their country or political stripe and no matter the prevailing laws, politicians were reluctant to go against
it. In fact, global companies are under greater pressure to respond to broader social expectations today, regardless of the prevailing legal structure, than at any other time in recent history.” (“The Social License to Operate” San Francisco, CA).

Once again, I urge you to review the extensive documentation of community opposition in this packet and make your own judgment about whether this project has a social license to operate.

Sincerely,

Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council