Apr
26
2019
by Bryan Kelly
Listen to Al Gedicks’ interview, here: https://realresistanceradio.com/podcast/al-gedicks-uw-lacrosse-emeritus-professor-of-environmental-sociology/
Mining company’s proposed tailings dam could cause massive pollution of Lake Michigan.
by Al Gedicks
April 18, 2019
On January 25, 2019, a 28-story high tailings dam in Brumadinho, in southeastern Brazil failed, releasing almost 3 billion gallons of sludgy mine waste. The spill flooded nearby homes, submerging cars and buses under a river of reddish-brown sludge. The death toll so far has risen to 228 with an estimated 49 people still missing and presumed dead. This is Brazil’s deadliest-ever mining accident.
by Al Gedicks
February 8, 2019
The recent collapse of a mine tailings dam in southeastern Brazil has already resulted in 134 fatalities, leaving an estimated 300 people still missing, according to rescue workers.
The spill flooded nearby homes, submerging cars and buses under a river of reddish-brown sludge. This environmental disaster should raise red flags for Michigan regulators and the communities downstream from Aquila Resources’ proposed open-pit metallic sulfide mine and tailings dam next to the Menominee River on the Wisconsin-Michigan border.
Jul
05
2018
We must be on to something!
Local editorial unleashes smear campaign against environmental activists fighting to save the Willow Flowage
June 25, 2018–State Senator Tom Tiffany just can’t stand to have me question the wisdom of imposing unwanted mining projects that threaten the clean water of Wisconsin. So after my recent testimony against opening up formerly protected lands from mining in Oneida County, he passed along the information on my 1970 antiwar protest conviction to the River News, which ran the story in the June 23, 2018, edition.
May
03
2018
Reposted from GreenAmerica.org
If you’re read our article from the Fall 2017 Green American, “The Back Forty Mine: Is It the Next Standing Rock?”, you’re likely familiar with what’s going on in Upper Michigan. Briefly, Aquila Resources, a Toronto-based company, is trying to site a sulfide mine 150 feet from the banks of the Menominee River.
by Tracy Fernandez Rysavy
The border lands between the North Woods of northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan historically haven’t been a hotbed of environmental activism. The region, populated largely by farming and middle- or working-class families, trends staunchly conservative in states that toggle between red and blue from election to election. People kayak and fish in the summer, ski and snowmobile in the winter, and hunt deer and duck when the law permits them to do so. They don’t attend protests.
February 24, 2018
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Box 263
Tomahawk, WI 54487
Mr. Sean Roosen, CEO and Chair of Board
Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.
1100 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal
Suite 300
Montreal, Quebec H3B 2S2
Canada
Dear Mr. Roosen,
We are writing in regard to Osisko’s 15% ownership of Aquila Resources’ Back Forty metallic sulfide deposit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Aquila has promoted the idea that this project is a done deal. However, recent events should give your shareholders cause for concern. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) public hearing on Aquila’s wetland permit demonstrated serious technical problems with the permit application as well as continuing widespread public opposition to this controversial project.
Sep
22
2017
Senator and mining proponent uses personal attack as part of defense of bill.
By Al Gedicks – Sep 21st, 2017
How far is Senator Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) willing to go to do the bidding of the mining industry with his legislation to repeal Wisconsin’s “Prove It First” moratorium on sulfide mining? Senator Tiffany made that clear to everyone who attended the public hearing on September 7 in Ladysmith, Wisconsin on SB 395, the so-called “Mining for America Act” when he broke all the rules for public hearings and common decency by launching a personal attack on me for an arrest record from 47 years ago. He launched his attack in the middle of my testimony in opposition to repealing the mining moratorium law, which was live streamed. Since when do legislators try to intimidate and publicly humiliate citizens who are invited to offer public testimony on proposed legislation?
Aug
27
2017
August 24, 2017
MENOMINEE, Mich. — On a recent, rainy Friday evening, a small crowd of protesters had already dispersed after a few hours of trying to disrupt the weekly fish fry at the popular Ogden Club in downtown Menominee.
The tavern’s second floor no longer serves as office space for the employees of Aquila Resources, but, much to the annoyance of proprietor Robin Quigley, that hasn’t stopped the protesters from gathering outside every week.
Aug
23
2017
By Horst Schmidt
August 18, 2017
During a July 28, 2017, rally for protecting the Menominee River, water protectors on the Interstate Bridge between Menominee, Mich., and Marinette, Wis., display signs to raise awareness of the threats to the river posed by the projected Aquila Back 40 sulfide mine. (Photos © and courtesy Horst Schmidt, unless otherwise indicated.)
On a beautiful, sunny July afternoon, I headed to the twin cities of Menominee, Michigan, and Marinette, Wisconsin, where the Menominee River flows into Lake Michigan.
