first published by the Detroit News, on June 17, 2019
Will the Menominee River watershed, the largest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a significant tributary of Lake Michigan, remain a land of sky blue waters?
Or will an ill-advised metallic sulfide mine proposal, located a mere stone’s throw inland from the river and the Michigan-Wisconsin border, lead to contaminated waters and threaten drinking water supplies?
June 6, 2019
Eagle Herald
Dear Editor,
It’s surprising after 16 years when gold was discovered in Menominee County, as was so stated by Curtis Dahlgren in his letter to the editor, he is still concerned about the people who oppose the mine. Maybe he’s hoping to get a job as a gold miner.
June 5, 2019
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
Aquila Resources has failed in its attempt to prevent the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River from challenging the company’s wetland permit in a contested case hearing. Aquila argued that the Coalition did not have legal “standing.” That means Coalition members did not have enough interest in the Menominee River to file suit. The judge ruled that the people that will be affected by this project have the right to challenge the permit issued by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) in June 2018.
May 31, 2019
Eagle Herald
Dear Editor,
Recent letters show the risks of mining here. A picture showed that transportation accidents happen, right here in river city. A semi tanker carrying cyanide to the proposed mine, can kill us. Cyanide kills. Cyanide kills in minutes, before EMS arrives. Even if transported in dry form, when touched by water (rain, puddles, lakes, creeks, rivers, etc.) cyanide kills. Cyanide kills life above and below the water.
To read Representative Mike Gallagher’s letter to the secretary of the Wisconsin DNR, click HERE.
Dear Editor,
I am writing in regards to the Aquila Back Forty Mine Project. On behalf of the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance (ISA) and our membership (the largest smallmouth bass community in the nation) We Are Opposed To The Back Forty Mine Project.
Dear Editor,
The number of abandoned mines in the United States is up to nearly 500,000. Over 30,000 have ruined the environment, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thousands more are discovered every year. Abandoned mines on federal land are mainly controlled by The Bureau of Land Management. President Trump is seeking to cut the clean-up funds from $35 million to $13 million.
April 29, 2019
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Box 263
Tomahawk, WI 54487
Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO
Orion Mine Finance Group
7 Bryant Park
1045 Avenue of the Americas
Floor 25
New York, NY 10018
Dear Mr. Lewnowski
We are once again writing in regard to Orion’s 14 % ownership of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide deposit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Aquila’s President and CEO, Barry Hildred, has stated that Aquila has received all State and Federal permissions required for construction and commencement of operations at the Back Forty Project. This is inaccurate and highly misleading.
Dear Editor,
Aquila’s paid ad on April 27 in the EagleHerald boldly states that the public need not be concerned about water pollution from the Back Forty project because state and federal regulatory agencies have determined that the conditions in Aquila’s water discharge permit will protect groundwater and surface water.
This conclusion will undoubtedly come as a shock to the Water Resources Division (WRD) of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). In the WRD’s Finding of Fact and Conclusion of Law (April 30, 2018) they concluded that “the project does not demonstrate that the activities will be protective of water quality in perpetuity. The management and onsite disposal of waste material has not demonstrated that constituents from the material will be contained on the site, in the manner in which they are disposed.”
The WRD further determined, “that these materials will be transported through groundwater and discharge at the land and water interface, resulting in an adverse impact to the resource. With the data available to the WRD, this impact is foreseeable and will result in a long-term degradation of the aquatic resources on and off the project site.”
After reviewing Aquila’s wetland permit application the WRD concluded that a permit should not be issued. Despite the WRD’s extensive objections, the director of MDEQ issued Aquila’s wetland permit in June 2018. Despite repeated requests from the public and environmental groups, the MDEQ has not provided an explanation of why the agency ignored the scientific and legal objections of their own agency staff.
This obviously flawed permit process is now being challenged in a contested case hearing before an administrative law judge. The plaintiffs in the contested case include the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River Inc. and Tom Boerner, a private landowner.
Al Gedicks
Executive Secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, La Crosse, Wis.
Dear Editor,
How much can we take with industrial pollution destroying our water ways and the health of our people? Are they that selfish that all they care about is making themselves rich and not protecting the welfare of the people and the generations that will pay? They don’t care about the generations that will suffer from their negligence.
Are we only focused on ourselves now and not what happens years down the road? We need to step up to the plate and get our heads out of our keisters.
Aquila Resources, a Canadian Exploration company, says that everything is taken care of. Let me ask how can even one permit be issued when they don’t have a plan for a disaster. How would you stop a spill from going into the river? We the people have to say no to their contingency plan of disaster.
Aquila says they will monitor the mine after the closure if it goes through, but for how long? The duration of the earth with a hole 850-feet deep filled with toxins and acid mine drainage will never go away. It will be here for eternity.
How can we let this happen to the second biggest tributary to the Great Lakes? Aquila says it will be safe to the environment and the water when there has never been one open-pit metallic sulfide mine in that world that has not failed.
So why is the Menominee River rated one of 10 of the most endangered rivers in the U.S., according to a National Geographic in 2017.
Go back to Canada and put one up and prove yourself first.
Let’s step up and protect the generations to come and leave it better that we have now. So get your head out of your keister.
Jeffery J. Budish
Peshtigo
