WRPC website address: http://www.wrpc.net/index.html

April 5, 2004

Dear WRPC Member,
 
The Menominee Nation and the Antigo Chapter of Trout Unlimited won a major victory when the owner of the Polar springwater pumping proposal dropped the permit. Thanks to all who responded to the appeal in the last newsletter. See www.alphacdc.com/treaty/polar.html. Unfortunately, this was not the only threat to the Wolf River watershed. 
 
During the early 1980s the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) considered siting a high level nuclear waste dump in the granite bedrock of the Wolf River Batholith. Massive citizen and tribal opposition forced the DOE to put the proposal on indefinite hold. Now the DOE has announced that Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site (on the treaty lands of the Western Shoshone) will be full in 2037 so they will have to choose a new site by 2007. Citizens and tribes are getting ready for another battle to defend the Wolf River watershed. For more background, see http://www.wnwd.org
 
While we were waging a campaign to stop the Crandon mine, the mining industry lobbyists were busy revising Michigan's mineral mining laws to make it easier and less costly to develop new mines in the Upper Peninsula (UP). The same mineral formation at Crandon runs straight to the UP.When the mining lobby convinced the Michigan legislature to repeal Act 303 of 1982 and replace it with Act 451 of 1994, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) lost the ability to permit an underground mineral mine. Now a joint venture called the Back Forty (including the Mineral Processing Corporation, the Menominee River Exploration Company, and the American Copper & Nickel Company, a subsidiary of Inco of Canada) has acquired the mineral rights to more than 53,000 acres in Menominee County. 
 
The company has identified a potential metallic sulfide underground mine next to the Menominee River near Shakey Lakes. The Menominee River separates Wisconsin and Upper Michigan as its waters flow into the bay of Green Bay, and then into Lake Michigan. Concerned with the possibility of acid mine drainage and the inability of the state to enforce strict environmental regulations on the industry, local citizens have formed a group called the Front 40 Environmental Group. They are dedicated to preserving the Menominee River watershed. See www.menomineeriver.com They have asked for our help and we have formed the WI/MI Watershed Alliance to ensure that mining operations are not allowed to adversely impact the rivers, lakes and groundwater of Wisconsin, Michigan and the Great Lakes.
 
Our first major joint protest will be a Walk for Water on Saturday, April 17, 2004 in Marinette, Wisconsin at the Interstate Bridge. See enclosed flyer. Make copies and spread the word. Let's stop this project before it starts.
 
Sincerely,

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec. 
info@wrpc.net
www.wrpc.net