Tag Archives: Wisconsin

Coalition To Save The Menominee River

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Guest article by John Engel 

The Coalition to Save the Menominee River was created on April 7, 2017. The coalition was created by a group of Michigan and Wisconsin residents who live near the proposed Aquila Back Forty mine or downstream of the mine site on the Menominee River. The purpose is to collectively focus their needs of representation in order to vocalize their concerns. The elected representatives are not listening to their constituents about the damage the Back Forty Mine will do to the environment, the reduction of their property value, and how it will affect the long term economic benefits of a clean Menominee River. The Coalition applied and has received 501(c)(3) and tax exempt status.

BACKGROUND – AQUILA BACK FORTY PROPOSAL

A private water well was drilled early in 2001 and zinc-rich minerals were discovered. Follow-up drill testing of the geophysical anomaly resulted in the discovery of a massive sulfide deposit containing Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc, and Lead.

  • To date, over 500 diamond drill holes have been drilled over 125,000 meters in which polymetallic ore minerals has been verified from the surface to depths exceeding 700 meters.
  • Rumors of large mineral deposits and possibly an open pit mine were common until 2006 then the exploratory drilling activity subsided, as well as the rumors.
  • Unbeknownst to the general public, Mineral Processing began purchasing land, acquiring mineral rights beginning in 2003.
  • In 2010, the name changed to Aquila Resources which owns 580 acres of land adjacent to the Menominee River near the Shaky Lakes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
  • In 2007, Environmental Resource Management was contracted to conduct an Environmental Baseline Study and Aquila Resources was quietly proceeding with the environmental site work and engineering to obtain mining permits.
  • On November 12, 2015 Aquila submitted their proposals for the mining permits. The project was quietly moving forward until the August Menominee County Journal article stating the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality found the application to mine was administratively complete with a public hearing in October of 2016.

As of this writing, Aquila has been granted three of four final permits by Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ): the Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining Permit, the Air Use Permit to install, and the Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System Permit. These permits have been granted, but each permit has many pages of conditions attached which have to be met prior to the permit being effective.

WETLAND PERMIT CONTROVERSY

The Wetlands Permit application was submitted and withdrawn in 2016 by Aquila, and resubmitted in 2017. On January 23, 2018 the Michigan DEQ held a public meeting in the Stephenson Michigan High school. The purpose of the public meeting was to gather public opinion regarding the proposed Back Forty Mine Wetland Permit. The number of attendees exceeded 300 with 4 people speaking in favor of the mine and 84 opposing the mine. The Wetland Permit announcement (of decision) was scheduled for April 9, 2018; however the date has been delayed. Michigan DEQ allowed the public to submit written comments on the mine until February 2, 2018 at which time they received greater than 3400 comments and requests for additional information. In response to the public comments, the Michigan DEQ has submitted a 34 page letter of questions to Aquila Resources to verify inconsistencies in their wetland permit application. Aquila has 20 days to respond to the letter which was dated March 2, 2018. The response from Aquila is required before the Michigan DEQ can make a decision on the wetlands permit. If the wetlands permit is issued, site specific conditions will likely have to be met before the wetlands permit is deemed effective.

GROWING OPPOSITION TO BACK FORTY PROJECT

On March 1st, the author traveled to a Coalition to Save the Menominee River meeting. The meeting was held in the Wagner Town Hall on the Wisconsin side of the Menominee River near the McAllister Bridge. Surveys were handed out to a number of the people attending who lived on the river or near the proposed mine site.

The chairman of the group, Dale Burie, opened the meeting with a prayer for the river and the attendees. Dale proceeded with the agenda, providing updates on the Wetlands permitting process, the Menominee Nation’s Clean Water Act federal lawsuit, a treasurer’s report, various public events opposing the Back Forty Mine, future fund raising events, the lack of objective journalism by the Marinette Eagle Herald newspaper, and the lack of representation by their elected officials. Approximately 40 people attended the meeting. After the meeting, I met with each of the people who completed the survey. The news media, industry, and environmental organizations tend to focus on job creation or environmental harm; I propose we meet a few of the people who will be most affected by the Back Forty Mine.

CONCERNED CITIZENS

Dennis and Andrea Piontek retired 2 ½ years ago and live in their retirement home. They worked and saved to build their dream house on river 10 miles downstream of the proposed mine. Prior to building, they saw some signs about a mine but they were assured the investors backed out and the mine was a non-issue. Dennis and Andrea enjoy nature, clean air, clean water, and the variety of bird life. Andrea told me about the eagle family that lives in the area. Dennis enjoys fishing in the river and the fish are currently safe to eat. They are both very concerned about the river being polluted and the destruction of habitat. Another issue is property values, their home valuation has dropped which they believe is a direct result of the proposed mine activity.

Regina Chaltry and her daughter Gracey spend time at their family cottage south of the Oxbow on the Michigan side of the river. The cottage has been in their family since the 1940’s. They enjoy the quiet solitude and harmony with nature at their cottage. This area is beautiful, completely surrounded by forests, it is nearly untouched. They haven’t brought in electricity, opting for a simplified lifestyle. As a family, they enjoy floating down the river. They see eagles, deer, pheasant, porcupine, and beaver; in the evening owls are often heard. The spring ritual of collectively tapping and making maple syrup is an annual event. Regina and her family are very concerned about toxic mine waste polluting the Menominee River and prohibiting them from enjoying their family’s lifestyle.

August Beres has lived on the Wisconsin side of the river for more than 50 years. Augie dreamed about living on the river since he was a teenager. He worked hard saved his money, and his dream came true. When Augie’s grandchildren visit, they fish, canoe, and play in the river shallows. He is gravely concerned that if Aquila is allowed to mine, there will be a breach in the mine or another unforseen disaster. His grandchildren will not be able to grow up enjoying all the recreational and environmental opportunities river has to offer. Augie has written letters to our Governor, both U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressman, State Senator, and State Assemblyman. Augie received some positive feedback from State Assemblyman Jeff Mursau; however no serious action to alleviate his concerns has occurred. Tom Tiffany said the proposed mine was in Michigan and there was nothing he could do.

Tina Lesperance lives on the family farm which is approximately one mile east of the proposed mine site. Currently, the Aquila employees who work at the field office drive past her farm on their way to work. Tina’s farm has been in the family since 1930 and she absolutely loves the farm. In her words, “she loves the peace and quiet living with nature”. The Shakey Lakes area supports numerous species of migrating birds and waterfowl. Frequently Tina sees wolves on the farm; they know her and haven’t been problematic. Tina told me about the time she followed two of them from a distance into the woods. It was beginning to get dark and she thought that it was time to return home. She is concerned about the blasting, construction traffic, the sulfide dust, and her well water. If the mine is permitted, she is afraid the environment will suffer and it will directly affect her lifestyle.

Doug Stephen has been living on the Green Bay north of Menominee Michigan for 1 ½ years. Doug states the Bay is one of the most beautiful places he has ever seen. The wildlife is amazing bald eagles; deer, coyotes, and many fish for sport fishing. For reference, Doug lived in San Diego, Rhode Island, and the Chicago area on the water. Doug made a significant real estate investment when he purchased his house. At the time of the purchase, he had no idea a sulfide ore mine was proposed on the Menominee River. At the DEQ hearing in Stephenson Mi. Doug stated, “This is a moral outrage and should be a federal crime for anyone involved in moving forward with the Back Forty mine, not one sulfide mine has ever not polluted”.

I have additional stories; however, every person who was at the meeting has a personal reason to oppose the Back Forty Mine and they all have been ignored by their elected representatives. For instance, Michigan State Assembly Representative Beau LaFave and Michigan State Senator Tom Casperson have both been contacted numerous times to help but they refused.

What can we do to help?

 

 

John Engel is a resident of Wisconsin, active with the John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Rio Tinto Targets Clean Water Advocates in Wisconsin

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–by Laura Gauger, Legal Affairs Coordinator, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, October 30, 2013

Back in 2007 the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC; Tomahawk, Wisconsin) embarked on a mission to hold Flambeau Mining Company (FMC) accountable for water pollution problems caused by the company’s Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. FMC, at one time managed by Kennecott Minerals (Salt Lake City, Utah) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto (London, UK).

This project was never just about us here in Wisconsin … it was about trying to help clean water advocates in the entire Great Lakes region and beyond protect their own waters from adverse impacts linked to sulfide mining operations.

As you know, the mining industry has held up the Flambeau Mine to YOU, the people of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Alaska and who knows where else around the world as an example of “environmentally responsible mining” in efforts to convince you to “let them in” and mine in YOUR communities. Our lawsuit was meant to bring out the facts about the serious pollution problems at the Flambeau Mine site and thereby debunk the myth of the “environmentally responsible” Flambeau Mine and give you ammunition to use in your own battles.

We scored a partial victory in 2012, when we took FMC to federal court over violations of the Clean Water Act and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled, among other things, that the company had indeed violated the Act on numerous counts at the Flambeau Mine site.

Unfortunately, however, FMC appealed the decision, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit proceeded to let the mining company “off the hook.” The Court remained silent on whether or not FMC had violated the Clean Water Act. Instead, they ruled that the mining permit issued to FMC by the State of Wisconsin “shielded” the company from prosecution and that we therefore could not enforce the Clean Water Act against FMC (even though the company had indeed violated the Act, as determined by the U.S. District Court).

In the process, no one was held accountable for the fact that the Flambeau Mine has polluted a tributary of the Flambeau River to the point where theWisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has recommended to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the stream be listed as “impaired” for copper and zinc toxicity linked to the mining operation. And absolutely NOTHING has been done about the high levels of toxins (most notably manganese) in the groundwater at the mine site. You see, groundwater pollution at mine sites in Wisconsin has been legalized by the Wisconsin DNR and State Legislature (see NR 182.075, Wisconsin Administrative Code), so we could not argue that point in either state or federal court.

The latest twist is that FMC, owned by one of the wealthiest multinational mining corporations in the world (Rio Tinto), is “going after” WRPC, Laura Gauger and their fellow plaintiff (Center for Biological Diversity; Tucson, Arizona) to recover various “costs” the company accrued in the lawsuit … to the tune of $157,000.

Our lawyers are fighting the dollar amount demanded by FMC, but it appears we will be required to pay FMC/Rio Tinto many thousands of dollars.

Stay tuned.

Permalink: http://flambeaumineexposed.wordpress.com/statement/

 

In victory at Crandon, lessons for a new proposal | Al Gedicks and Dave Blouin

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Oct. 9, 2013

The end of this month, Oct. 28, marks the 10th anniversary of the historic victory over the controversial Crandon mine project adjacent to the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Reservation.

Veterans of that 28-year (1975-2003) battle against the Crandon metallic sulfide mine will gather on the Mole Lake Reservation on Oct. 26 to commemorate the grass-roots environmental, sportfishing and tribal victory over the world’s largest energy company (Exxon) and the world’s largest mining company (BHP Billiton).

Situated at the headwaters of the Wolf River, the proposed underground shaft mine was one mile upstream from the tribe’s wild rice beds, five miles from the Forest County Potawatomi Reservation, and 40 miles (via the Wolf River) upstream of the Menominee Nation. The mine would have destroyed Mole Lake’s wild rice beds and threatened the tourism industry downstream on the Wolf River.

In the end, the Mole Lake Chippewa and the Forest County Potawatomi tribes purchased and divided the 5,000-acre Crandon mine property for $16.5 million. Mole Lake acquired the Nicolet Minerals Co., and quickly dropped mine permit applications. The land is now managed as a conservation area devoted to sustainable land-management practices, tribal cultural values and tourism suitable to this environmentally sensitive area.

The international mining industry was shocked when a broad multiracial, rural-based grassroots alliance defeated the world’s largest mining corporation. How could such a movement overcome the superior financial resources, and political access to decision-makers in the Wisconsin Legislature, governor’s office and the Department of Natural Resources?

Dale Alberts, president of Nicolet Minerals, a subsidiary of BHP Billliton, acknowledged that “a major problem in the beginning was the company did a poor job communicating to the local people. Environmental groups got out ahead and frightened people.”

But what really frightened people was the prospect of acidic mine waste piles 90 feet deep and covering 355 acres at the headwaters of the pristine Wolf. Native and non-Native groups mistrusted the DNR to defend their rights and found that tribal environmental regulations were stronger than state laws in protecting the Wolf River’s tourism economy.

After the Crandon defeat, the mining industry urgently discussed the need for a “social license to operate” where the mining companies work to win broad social support for their extractive activities. The failure to obtain such a social license raises the political and financial risks of a project and can often lead to the defeat of a mining project by widespread community opposition.

This is exactly what happened at Crandon and what is now taking place in the Bad River watershed where Gogebic Taconite has proposed a mountaintop removal operation to create the largest open pit iron mine in the world upstream from the largest remaining wild rice wetland in the entire Great Lakes basin on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation.

GTac has followed Exxon’s strategy by using its financial and political power with the governor and the Legislature to write its own mining law, severely limiting citizen and tribal participation in the permitting process, and militarizing the mine site by deploying masked security guards with automatic weapons to intimidate the public.

The most recent public opinion survey from the University of Wisconsin-Superior shows that nearly two-thirds of the people in a random poll in Iron and Ashland counties oppose the mine project.

From the perspective of the mining industry’s own standards for a viable mine project, this project is dead in the water.

Al Gedicks of La Crosse is executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council. Dave Blouin of Madison is the Mining Committee chair of the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter.

Permalink: http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/in-victory-at-crandon-lessons-for-a-new-proposal-b99116285z1-227139641.html#ixzz2k4R9Uitz

Thursday, March 7th: Tele-Town Hall with Mining Expert Al Gedicks

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Wow- our Tele-Town Hall with activist and scholar Al Gedicks was a total success. Stay tuned for more info and be sure to sign up for our upcoming Tele-Town Hall on a special topic. Have a recommendation for a Tele-Town Hall topic or speaker? Email info@savethewildup.org or call (906) 662-9987. Thanks!

Gedicks, Blouin: New Wisconsin iron mining bill will be devastating to the environment

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Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) should be paying Isthmus contributor Larry Kaufmann for his able job of parroting their misleading talking points on the new mining bill introduced last week by GOP mining cheerleaders. The “new” version of AB 426, the Strip Mine Giveaway Bill (AB 1/SB 1), is essentially the same bill from last session. A new network of more than 80 state, regional and national organizations immediately asked legislators to reject this extreme legislation that guts state mining laws for one company’s destructive proposal.

The legislation will create a streamlined, less protective ferrous (iron) mining regulatory program for what will be the largest open pit iron mine in the world, based on no scientific evidence to justify treating iron mining different than other metallic mining. If Gogebic Taconite (GTac) proceeds with their proposal, Phase 1 alone would be larger than the acknowledged largest taconite (iron) mine in the world, the Hull Rust Mahoning Mine in Hibbing, Minnesota. The taconite ore body here runs 22 miles in length, meaning that the expansion of mining after Phase 1 could result in an even larger mine with additional impacts on rivers, streams, wetlands and groundwater.

Over 900 million tons of wastes and tailings (over 35 years of Phase 1) will be dumped in the wetlands and streams of the Bad River watershed, and could produce the same acid mine drainage that has resulted in fish advisories for mercury and a wild rice dead zone for 100 miles downstream from Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range in the St. Louis River watershed.

The main proponents of the bill, including GTac, WMC and the Wisconsin Mining Association (WMA), have consistently misled legislators with claims that the iron ore in Ashland and Iron counties is more environmentally safe compared to metallic sulfide mining and thus requires separate regulations. They claim that since this is an oxide ore and not a sulfide ore, it can’t produce acid mine drainage and poison local water supplies with dissolved toxic metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead.

Science proves mining proponents are making a false claim. Oxide ores can contain the same sulfide materials (pyrite) that cause acid mine drainage. The Wisconsin Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey have reported that pyrite is associated with the ore and waste rock in 1929 and 2008, respectively. Independent geological studies have confirmed that there are significant sulfides in pyrite in the waste rock adjacent to the ore. The independent geologists estimate that just one cubic kilometer of the waste rock could contain the pyrite equivalent of 10 billion gallons of sulfuric acid of car battery strength.

In other words, GTac’s claim that ferrous mining should be regulated separately is based on an artificial distinction without scientific merit. Legislators who voted for AB 426 were deliberately misled by GTac, WMC and WMA about the safety of taconite mining and cast votes based on unproven mining industry rhetoric over scientific fact.

The biggest lie coming from WMC and mining proponents and repeated by Kaufmann is that the law “doesn’t alter a single water-quality, groundwater or air-quality standard.” The nonpartisan Legislative Council’s memo to legislators on the bill reveals dozens of instances of exemptions or reduced applications of current environmental law for this company’s proposal. Even Wisconsin DNR’s mining administrator, Ann Coakley, stated “there are a lot of changes that could easily be seen as weakening of environmental regulations,” as reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

For example, current mining law (a compromise hammered out with mining companies) already allows a groundwater sacrifice zone where pollution is allowed up to 1,200 feet in all directions from the edge of a waste site or mine. The bill allows DNR to double that boundary to 2,400 feet if the company’s design can’t meet the 1,200-foot standard. The numerical standard for groundwater pollution may not change, but the amount of polluted water would be dramatically increased.

The bill requires the DNR to approve water withdrawals in any amount, from any location, regardless of whether the withdrawal will cause lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, wetlands or wells to go dry. It allows the company to fill lake beds and dump wastes into sensitive wetlands, shorelands and floodplains. It exempts the company from meeting local zoning approvals. It removes the contested case hearing before the permit decision is made, which deprives the public of their right to have the company’s claims and DNR decisions reviewed while under oath.

The bill limits state regulators’ ability to adequately review the proposal by imposing arbitrary time deadlines of 420 days for permit decisions, and places an unreasonable cap on the costs of review. The creation of an artificial deadline for permit decisions alone virtually guarantees that federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers will initiate analysis independent of the state due to the federal trust responsibility to protect resources of Native Americans. The Bad River Band of Ojibwe also has sovereign authority under the Clean Water Act to protect its wild rice from mining pollution. This means that regardless of any new bill passed here, federal permit decisions are unlikely to be made for many years in the future.

There is no debate that this proposal will cause enormous and devastating effects on the air, land and waters of the Bad River watershed of Lake Superior, even if it somehow meets current environmental standards, let alone the gutted regulations in the bill. It is no exaggeration to state that mining proponents are lying to legislators and the public about the impacts of this legislation.

by Al Gedicks and Dave Blouin

Al Gedicks is the Executive Secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and the author of Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations. Dave Blouin is the Mining Committee Chair for the Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter and co-founder of the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin. “Citizen” is an opinion series that presents the views of the author. If you would like to reply, please comment or consider submitting an op-ed in response.

This article originally appeared in The Daily Page: http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=38846

Court Rules Flambeau ‘Model Mine’ Violated Clean Water Act

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Court Rules Flambeau ‘Model Mine’ Violated Clean Water Act

The Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, WI has a long history of controversy due, in part, to the proximity of the mine to the Flambeau River. This photo was taken in September 1994, when heavy rains   caused flooding at the mine site.

 

State Officials Urged to ‘Learn from Flambeau’ and Stop Proposed Mega-Mines in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan

A federal court ruled yesterday that Flambeau Mining Company (FMC) violated the Clean Water Act on numerous occasions by allowing pollution from its Flambeau Mine site, near Ladysmith, Wis., to enter the Flambeau River and a nearby tributary known as Stream C.

The lawsuit was filed early last year by the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Laura Gauger. The complaint charged that Flambeau Mining Company (a subsidiary of Kennecott Minerals Company / Rio Tinto) was violating the Clean Water Act by discharging stormwater runoff containing pollutants, including toxic metals like copper and zinc, from a detention basin known as a biofilter. Continue reading →

How Did Wisconsin Become the Most Politically Divisive Place in America?

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By DAN KAUFMAN

May 24, 2012

This past March, standing outside a Shell station in Mellen, Wis., in the state’s far north, Mike Wiggins Jr. told me about a series of dark and premonitory dreams he had two years earlier. “One of them was a very vivid trip around the North Woods and seeing forests bleeding and sludge from a creek emptying into the Bad River,” Wiggins said. “I ended up at a dilapidated northern log home with rotten snowshoes falling off the wall. I stepped out of the lodge, walked through some pine, and I was in a pipeline. There was a big pipe coming in and out of the ground as far as I could see. Continue reading →