Get Your Holiday Gifts

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Holiday Offer! Limited supply!

  • Beautiful Thanksgiving table centerpieces, created by the gals at Garden Bouquet and Design, now located at 130 E. Baraga Avenue, are available for purchase through SWUP for $30. They’re fresh, colorful, and naturally accented with familiar local flora. Call our office to order, 228-4444.
  • BAG-IT! Save the Wild UP has hefty sized reusable canvas bags available at the office for a $10 donation. Our attractive logo is boasted on the side and the bag will easily hold all of your holiday or grocery items. Call or stop by for your very own SWUP shopping bag.

New Sulfide Mining Documentary Show Times and Locations

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Mining Madness, Water Wars: The Great Lakes in the Balance
A Documentary Film on Sulfide Mining

“Mining Madness, Water Wars: The Great Lakes in the Balance” is a timely, compelling documentary that lays bare a controversial proposal to blast a mine beneath a blue ribbon trout stream in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The 33-minute story is told through the passionate voices of scientists, community activists, tribal officials, and others who care about protecting our most precious asset water. Watch a short excerpt that focuses on one aspect of the controversy — the apparent disregard for Native American treaty rights.

Despite extensive scientific testimony that the project’s flaws could place workers in peril and jeopardize a Lake Superior tributary and its watershed, citizens and environmental organizations have found the state’s leadership unresponsive and now look to the justice system for resolution.

“Mining Madness, Water Wars: The Great Lakes in the Balance” was underwritten by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and produced by Brauer Productions, Inc. and Summit Public Relations Strategies, LLC.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwFT1cuRyrY[/youtube]

“An easy tutorial on one of the most momentous environmental battles in Michigan history”
–Lawrence Cosentino
Lansing City Pulse

Holiday Tree Decorating

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This year SWUP will participate in the annual holiday tree display at the Peter White Public Library. We will decorate a 4 foot holiday tree and would like your help. Please mail or drop off pictures of your favorite wild places in the UP to SWUP’s office. Please send all pictures by Tuesday, December 2. Pictures should be mailed to Save the Wild UP, PO Box 562 Marquette, MI 49855.

Governor’s UP Director Resigned to Work for Kennecott

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Revolving Door:  Governor Granholm’s UP Director Takes Government Relations Job with Rio Tinto

By Gabriel Caplett

Marquette, MI – Matt Johnson, director of the Governor’s Office for the Upper Peninsula, has resigned from his post and now works for Rio Tinto, the parent company of Kennecott Minerals. The company has an office in Ishpeming, MI, and is seeking to develop a nickel-copper mine on the Yellow Dog Plains, in addition to other mineral projects in the area.

Johnson is now involved with government relations for the company. Prior to working in the Governor’s office, Johnson was Congressman Bart Stupak’s Upper Peninsula district administrator.

Johnson was the Governor’s contact on metallic sulfide mining in the UP, since 2003. According to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) documents, Johnson assisted in coordinating the Governor’s involvement in the formation of Michigan’s new nonferrous metallic mining laws and kept her informed on updates from the DEQ, the company and citizens. The DEQ’s deputy director provided Johnson with talking points for the Governor regarding contentious issues related to Kennecott’s project.

Speaking for the Governor in a 2005 visit to the Keweenaw Peninsula, Johnson said, “We believe that the mining laws, because they’re some of the strongest in the nation, will balance economic development and environmental protection.”

According to the Governor’s press secretary, Liz Boyd, Johnson’s “role was to facilitate communication . . . We’re disappointed to lose Matt. He was a great asset to the governor and to this office… we wish him the very best in his new role.”

Boyd reiterated the Governor’s stance on the DEQ’s approval of Kennecott’s mining plan, maintaining that “the Department of Environmental Quality handled this permit application appropriately and followed the letter of the law.”

In a recent contested case on the DEQ’s approval, Joe Maki, a geologist with the DEQ’s Office of Geological Survey and Mine Review Team leader for the review and recommended approval of Kennecott’s application, acknowledged that the DEQ did not apply a central tenet of Michigan’s metallic mining law in considering Kennecott’s application. Maki affirmed that neither he, nor his mining team, required Kennecott to provide a mine plan that “reasonably minimizes actual or potential adverse impacts on air, water and other natural resources,” a legal requirement.

Many local citizens have previously expressed a lack of confidence in the Governor’s oversight of the DEQ in approving Kennecott’s mining operation. Johnson’s new role as government lobbyist for the company raises serious doubt as to the Governor’s ability to maintain an ethical responsiveness regarding metallic sulfide and uranium mining proposals in the Upper Peninsula.

According to Kristi Mills, Director at Save the Wild UP, “Obviously this is a lucrative career opportunity for a young professional living in the Upper Peninsula. However, Mr. Johnson’s move is indicative of the questionable relationship between our state government and Rio Tinto. This mining company, along with the DEQ, has entered a partnership by forming a nonprofit corporation to further their new mining project plans. We have not seen the end of this type of arrogance and corruption coming from these two parties.”

Halloween Costume Contest with Raffle to benefit SWUP

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When: Friday October 31st, 7:00 – midnight
Where: UpFront and Co.

Judging begins at 9:00pm. $3 entry fee (ages 18 and older)

Costume Categories:
Best movie Costume – Grand prize
Best Overall Costume – Cash Prize
Best Couple
Funniest
Scariest

Bring some extra cash for a snap shot of you and your friends taken by CK Unlimited. Presented by Third Street Video and CK Unlimited Photography.

Sudbury Health Risks Report Review Commissioned by Steelworkers

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A report prepared by nationally known pollution watchdog, Environmental Defence Canada, says that the Sudbury Soil Study Human Health Risk Assessment Report (HHRA) “cannot demonstrate that there is no harm occurring, it can only estimate level of risk. The assessors have inappropriately decided what that acceptable level of risk should be. This is a decision the community should make.”

The review of the HHRA was commissioned by Mine Mill 598 and Local 6500 of the Steelworkers this summer, and released this morning.

In response to the report, a number of community residents and organizations have banded together to form the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soil Study. The Community Committee is urging the Ontario Ministries of Environment and of Labour to step up and assume their responsibility for the health of Sudburians.

The Environmental Defence report sets out a number of serious findings:

  1. Lead contamination is above safe levels in Greater Sudbury, and children may be harmed at these levels;
  2. Air levels of nickel are higher than recommended exposure in three communities;
  3. There are concerns that inhaled arsenic and specific types of ingested arsenic may put Sudbury residents at risk;
  4. Higher levels of lead, arsenic and nickel in Sudbury-grown  foods are a concern for those eating them;
  5. The assessment assumes it is acceptable to expose workers to greater level of risks, who receive greater doses of nickel and other contaminants during their employment.

The Committee was represented at today’s media event by Rick Grylls, President Local 598, John Fera, President Local 6500 Steelworkers, Monique Beaudoin, Centre de Sante Communautaire, and Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch. Many other Committee members were also present.

“We want to see the Government ensure that the public decides what level of risk it can accept, what will be done to clean-up affected properties, and what will be done to treat those whose health is at risk”, said John Fera. “The process to date has been dominated by the companies who are responsible for the mess.”

Said Brennain Lloyd: “We need the Ontario Government to help the public formulate a response to the Soil Study. The Ecological Risk Assessment has yet to be released, and we don’t want another green-wash. The public needs and deserves real involvement in reviewing these results, and the government needs to be ready to take real action at the end of the process”.

“It is not acceptable to exclude the extra health risks for the 25-35,000 current and past workers in Sudbury,” said Rick Grylls. “The community has to decide the acceptable levels of risk and what should be done to deal with the problems.”

Monique Beaudoin, Health Promoter for the Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury says, “the francophone community and the community in general have the right to information in their language and to the tools and resources that will allow them to participate effectively in the Ecological Risk Assessment. The environmental health of our community is at risk and the public has a right to be fully informed and to determine the level of risk it is willing to live with”.

Copies of the Environmental Defence Report are available from http://www.toxicnation.ca/toxicnation-studies.

Environmental Defence is a national non-profit organization that seeks to connect Canadians with key environmental and pollution issues. Its Toxic Nation campaign undertakes studies and advocacy for change. The HHRA report was reviewed by Dr. Kapil Khatter.

Dr. Khatter is a family physician and an environment and health expert who has led chemical-related policy work at Environmental Defence (www.environmentaldefence.ca). He has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies and has sat on a number of working groups tasked with providing expert advice to Health Canada and Environment Canada. Dr. Khatter is also a board member of Health Care Without Harm and the President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

For more information, contact:
Environmental Defence – Aaron Freeman, Policy Director  613-564-0007
CAW Local 598 – Rick Grylls, President, 705-673-3661
Centre de santé communautaire de Sudbury – Monique Beaudoin, Health Promoter, 705-855-8084 ext 211
Northwatch – Brennain Lloyd, 705-497-0373