Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

For more information contact: For immediate release

Al Gedicks (608) 784-4399 May 4, 2015

agedicks@uwlax.edu

Wisconsin Citizens’ Group Struggles for Clean Water

Ordered to Pay Mining Company’s Court Costs, Seeks Community Support

Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC), a small, grassroots citizens group, is a plaintiff in a Clean Water Act lawsuit related to illegal discharges of pollutants into a stream at Rio Tinto’s Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin.  They and their co-plaintiffs won the case in U.S. District Court and exposed the pollution from the metallic sulfide mine. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals ordered the plaintiffs, including WRPC, to pay Rio Tinto’s court costs, which total over $60,000.

September 3, 2013

Dear WRPC Member,

More than 100 people spoke out at the August 15, 2013 public hearing in Hurley, Wisconsin on Gogebic Taconite’s (GTac’s) proposed bulk sampling activity in the Penokee Hills. The overwhelming majority of the testimony was against the project, citing concerns about treaty rights, pollution of critical watersheds and GTac’s coverup of the health hazards from asbestiform minerals in the rock to be blasted.

Madison–The Sierra Club, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and over 75 other organizations, including Trout Unlimited, the Wisconsin Association of Lakes, the Izaak Walton League of Wisconsin, the River Alliance of Wisconsin, the Penokee Hills Education Project, the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin, Clean Wisconsin, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters and many more statewide, regional and national groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council released an open letter urging Wisconsin legislators to reject changes to Wisconsin’s mining safeguards.

Dear Environmental and Conservation Colleagues,

We’re writing to ask you to consider signing your organization on to the sign-on letter (below) that will be sent to Wisconsin legislators in both houses by mid-January.  The letter asks the legislators to reject special interest legislation gutting Wisconsin mining law to enable a single destructive iron ore mine.  Similar legislation was defeated by a single vote in 2012.

Click on the link below to access briefing papers on Wisconsin’s mining “moratorium” law, strip mining legislation, and iron mining:

Briefing on Wisconsin Mining Moratorium Law

Briefing on Strip Mine Legislation

Iron Mining Environmental Track Record Briefing Paper Jan 2013

For Immediate Release, July 25, 2012

MADISON, Wis.— A federal court ruled yesterday that the Flambeau Mining Company violated the Clean Water Act on multiple occasions by allowing pollution from its Flambeau Mine site, near Ladysmith, Wis., to enter the Flambeau River and a nearby tributary.  Eleven of these occasions occurred within the applicable statute of limitations, resulting in liability for 11 violations of the Act.

WRPC note:  The public hearings listed on the WRPC Website for June 23, in Rhinelander and Lynne, have been cancelled.

by Marcus Nesemann, Rhinelander Daily News, June 14, 2012

The Oneida County Forestry, Land and Recreation Committee will forward two resolutions to the county board seeking permission to advertise for bids for mining proposals and to hold a referendum in November to gauge public interest in moving forward with mining in the town of Lynne.

The bids would be for “exploration, prospecting, and mining lease agreements.” The committee, according to the resolution, “feels that it is necessary for the lease agreements (to) be put out for bid in order to garner valuable information from the mining companies, which will in turn lead to a better assesment of public reaction at the time of the informational meetings that the committee is required to conduct pursuant to county policy.”

Those meetings, not to be confused with now-canceled public-information meetings, are required by the Oneida County Metallic Ore Prospecting and Mining Policy, which calls for them to be held “prior to entering into any mining agreements to asses public reaction.”

** Public meetings, noted below, for June 23 in Lynne and Rhinelander, have been cancelled.  See the Rhinelander Daily News’ article on this for more information **

MAY 19 PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING POSTPONED UNTIL SATURDAY, JUNE 23.

THE PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING ON WHETHER THE PUBLIC WANTS MINING IN THE TOWN OF LYNNE, ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR MAY 19 HAS BEEN MOVED TO JUNE 23. ALTHOUGH DETAILS HAVE NOT BEEN CONFIRMED, IT IS EXPECTED THAT THERE WILL BE TWO MEETINGS. THE FIRST WILL BE IN THE TOWN OF LYNNE FROM 9:00AM TO NOON. A SECOND MEETING WILL BE HELD IN RHINELANDER FROM 2:00 TO 5:00 PM. CHECK THIS WEBSITE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION.

The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC) is asking you to voice your support for a proposal by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to list an unnamed stream at the Flambeau Mine site (known as “Stream C”) as “impaired” due to copper and zinc toxicity.

A New Proposal from Kennecott, but the Old Adage from Roscoe Churchill Still Rings True:  “Just Grass Over a Grave”

Kennecott / Flambeau Mining Company (FMC) is proposing to convert an existing 0.9-acre, lined “detention basin” (pond) at the partially reclaimed Flambeau Mine site to an “infiltration basin” and construct two new infiltration basins at the site to handle contaminated runoff.  I recently received notice of a public hearing that has been scheduled on the proposal for Wednesday August 3, 2011 at 5 PM in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.