July 17, 2000

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

Thanks to all who attended our April 29th Student/Youth Rally to Stop the Crandon Mine, the Duluth-Wausau Transmission Line, the Perrier bottling plant, the Rock-Gen power plant and other abuses of corporate-state power. Over 700 people of all ages came together from throughout Wisconsin at the State Capitol in Madison in support of "people power against corporate power." Chairman Chuck Sleeter of Nashville Township spoke at the rally about his efforts to overturn the previous town board's so-called "local agreement" with Crandon Mining Company. "The company came to Nashville and took democracy away from the people," he said.

Now it's time to reclaim that democracy. WRPC's attorney, Glenn Reynolds is appealing Judge Mangerson's denial of our motion to dismiss the local agreement after the admission of 55 violations of the state's open meetings law when it secretly negotiated the local agreement with Exxon/Rio Algom.

In a separate, but related court action, Glenn Stoddard, the attorney for the Town of Nashville has filed a motion for summary judgement in the case of Nicolet Minerals Company v. Town of Nashville. When the new town board in Nashville acted to rescind the local agreement, the mining company filed suit, claiming this was a violation of their contract. The motion filed by Glenn Stoddard of Garvey & Stoddard, asks the court to uphold the recission of the local agreement and declare the Local Agreement unconscionable. Glenn thinks the township has a very strong case.

The case is currently scheduled for a summary judgement hearing before Judge P. Charles Jones at the Forest County Courthouse in Crandon on August 11, 2000, beginning at 9:00 am. [NOTE! Hearing date has been changed to September 21, 2000] WRPC urges everyone who can attend to come and demonstrate your support for Nashville's current town board. You can be sure that the mining company will have their own supporters in the courtroom that day.

In the aftermath of the huge January 2000 Romanian gold mine disaster involving the release of toxic mine waste contaminated with cyanide, Rep. Spencer Black and others will be introducing a bill in the next Wisconsin legislative session to ban cyanide in mining. A fact sheet on the dangers in mining is available at . A copy of the petition is available at that we urge people to copy and get others to sign.

DNR's release of the draft environmental impact statement on the Crandon mine has been delayed yet again. Based on Rio Algom's own calculations, the proposed mine is likely to release contaminants at levels that would violate Wisconsin groundwater standards. (Read AP story at ). The company's own data shows that the backfilled and flooded mine would be a source of groundwater contamination for the next 100,000 to 200,000 years!

How does the company plan to handle this little problem? They propose, with a straight face, to pump the contaminated groundwater and treat it in perpetuity. The DNR told the company to rethink this. This sounds like an invitation to fudge the unpleasant data. How many times is the DNR going to allow Rio Algom to revise their mining plan before they say this mine, as proposed, is unacceptable?

Finally, this is membership renewal time with an additional plea for contributions to our legal defense fund. Glenn Reynolds has been doing much of the work on the appeal of Judge Mangerson's decision pro bono but he still has expenses to meet. If you can add $5 or $10 to your regular membership renewal, that will go directly toward meeting those expenses. WRPC membership renewal is $15 regular, or $5 senior/low income. Please use the enclosed envelope to send in your membership and contribution to the legal defense fund. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary