Newsletters 1993

October 21, 1993
June 29, 1993
May 29, 1993
March 16, 1993


October 21, 1993

Dear WRPC Member,

 In case you haven't heard the latest news of the undead - Exxon is back!  This time with Rio Algom of Canada as a partner,  to revive the Crandon zinc mine project at the headwaters of the Wolf River and immediately adjacent to the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa reservation. Three Chipppewa tribal chairpersons immediately condemned the project (see attached article), as did the Wolf River Watershed Alliance.  Formerly owned by RTZ, Rio Algom has a horrendous environmental track record, including the radioactive contamination of the Serpent River in Ontario's uranium mining district.  All the more reason to get right on the phone and call your legislators and urge them to vote for Rep. Spencer Black's Bad Actor Mining Bill ((AB 542).
While you're on the legislative hotline 1-800-362-9472, be sure and voice your support for the Protect Our Parks from Mining Bill (AB 471), the Mining Right to Know Bill (AB 498) and the Mining Groundwater Protection Bill (AB  341).

 These bills have the mining lobby quite upset (see Milwaukee Sentinel story) and it is important that those of us concerned about the headlong rush to pillage the state's nonrenewable resources make a concerted effort to counter the lobbying of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.  We know that if enough individuals and organizations get involved, it can have a decisive impact - just remember the effort we made to unseat Peter Peshek as DNR Secretary.
If you don't know the name of your legislator, the legislative hotline person will tell you. Don't forget to register your vote!

 Please mark your calendars for December 4-5, 1993. That's when representatives from native and environmental groups will come together to discusss regional mining concerns at a conference on Great Lakes Mining Impacts at the Sigurd Olsen Institute at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. We'll define key hardrock mining issues in the region, do some networking and alliance building and explore ways to confront specific mining issues. A detailed agenda will be available soon. The conference is a joint effort between the Washington, D.C.-based Mineral Policy Center and three Wisconsin organizations - WRPC, ECCOLA (Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Lakeland Areas) and the Midwest Treaty Network. 

 In the meantime, please send in your WRPC membership dues if you haven't done so already. Regular memberhips are $15/yr. Low-income, student and retired memberhips are $5/yr.  We've got some major battles ahead and we'll need all the resources we can muster.  Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.


June 29, 1993

 Dear WRPC  Member,

  When is a bog lake not a lake?  Apparently when a bog lake lies close enough to  Noranda's proposed open pit mine to fall under the state's prohibition of mining in lake  beds. The Wisconsin DNR originally thought the ordinary high water mark of the small  bog lake, known as 15-13, lies near Noranda's proposed open pit mine.  On June 15,  1993,Bill Tans of the DNR told Noranda and the Oneida County Board that a "mound" of  water separated one portion of the bog lake from the peatland and therefore the shoreland  wetland is away from the pit area and poses no zoning problem for the mine. If this sounds  confusing, you're not alone (see the enclosed article from The Lakeland Times).

  This is the same state agency that told us in 1976 that the backfilled open pit lake  at Ladysmith would be meromictic (that the toxic materials at the bottom of the lake  would  not mix with the upper layer of the lake). There was no scientific basis for this  claim.  This is also the same state agency that told us in 1989 that there were no  endangered species near the proposed minesite at Ladysmith.  In fact, no surveys were ever  done to find out whether there were or not, despite well-founded suspicions that there were  endangered species at the site.  Now, we are being told that a "mound" of water is going to  be used to define a lake edge.  If this is true, it will be one of the few places in the world  where this occurs.  

  Before we accept this highly unusual interpretation of the lakebed hydrology, we  need to have some independent experts look at the DNR's evidence and reasoning to see  whether this is a scientific or a political determination. There are a number of groups who  are interested in this issue, including ECCOLA, the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Tribe, the  Sierra Club and WRPC.  We hope to pool our collective resources to find some technical  help to do this evaluation.  If we find that the science is questionable we then face the  additional burden of mounting an administrative and legal challenge to the DNR's decision.

  These and other questions will be discussed at the upcoming Protect the Earth  Gathering on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation from Friday, July 30 through Sunday,  August 1 (see attached flyer). We urge all WRPC members to try to make this gathering.
 And don't forget to send in your membership renewal to WRPC as soon as you can.  I have  enclosed a return envelope for your convenience.  We're counting on your support.

 Sincerely,

 Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.


May 29, 1993

 Dear WRPC Member,

  Our efforts to put mining issues on the state's political agenda have paid off.  Last month, citizens in nearly two dozen chapters of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress passed resolutions calling for a moratorium on sulfide mining and for a study of the effects of a "mining district" in northern Wisconsin.  We now have to make sure that the Wisconsin DNR takes notice of this concern of the Congress. There are two very important opportunities to do this in the next several weeks.

On June 9th, Rep. Spencer Black will be holding public hearings on three mining-related bills - see enclosed letter from Rep. Black.  The hearing is at 9:30am in room 318 Southwest of the State Capitol.  All threee bills would do much to strengthen environmental regulations on mining and prevent environmental outlaws like Kennecott/RTZ from mining in the state.

On June 23rd and 24th, the Natural Resources Board will be meeting in Rhinelander. One of the items on their agenda will be a consideration of the petition from the Rusk County  Citizens Action Group to adopt stricter standards for protection of groundwater in mining areas.  A copy of the petition is enclosed.  The activists in Ladysmith and Rusk County are on the front  line of the mining battle and need all the support they can get from people around the state.  If  you are able to attend the meeting and testify in support of the petition, you need to call Judy Scullion at (608) 267-7420 to register to speak and find out where the meeting is and when that item will come up on the agenda.

One of the outcomes of the meeting of Indians and environmentalists at Lac du Flambeau last February was the ad campaign to publicize Noranda's agreement to process the ores from Ladysmith at their smelter in Quebec.  A copy of the ad, as it ran in the Toronto Sun, along with a press release, is enclosed.  We encourge people to continue writing letters to Noranda to pressure them to withdraw from this agreement.  This is a classic case of exporting pollution to the hinterlands.  In the meantime, Kennecott continues to ship extremely rich gold from the Ladysmith mine, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, without any additional revenues coming back to the state or the local governments.

This year's Protect the Earth Festival will be held at the Lac du Flambeau reservation on Friday, July 30-Sunday, August 1.  That will be another important opportunity to talk about our next moves in the ongoing mine battles. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.


March 16, 1993

Dear WRPC Member,

 The good news is that our grassroots effort to get rid of Peter Peshek as DNR Secretary was successful.  The bad news is that the Ladysmith mine is now under construction.  Despite this setback, the opposition to mining is growing to the point where the mining interests in this state feel they need to resort to sending spies to our meetings and then fabricating the most outrageous lies which are then "leaked" to sympathetic media like the Wisconsin State Journal (see enclosed story). Can you imagine any respectable editor daring to print anonymous, unsubstantiated allegations made by an environmentalist about the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Association?  These people are truly desperate.  Robert Wilson, the chief executive of RTZ, and owner of the Ladysmith mine, admitted as much in the November 1992 issue of Institutional Investor: "The developing countries are no longer such a worry.  Instead, it's the developed world that gives us more cause for concern.  In fact, our greatest political risk today is probably in the U.S. and Australia...For example, the copper-mining project we are trying to develop at Flambeau, Wisconsin..."

 We must keep the pressure on and continue to educate others about the stakes involved in mining. We have an ideal opportunity to do this at the upcoming annual meetings of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC) on April 5, 1993.  This is not a club; you don't have to join it or pay dues. You don't have to register to vote at their meeting.  All you have to do is show up at your local county meeting of the Congress and state your concerns.  By law, the DNR has to listen to and respond to the recommendations of the Congress.  We are urging all WRPC members to attend the April 5 meeting in their county (a list of the meeting places and the time (7:30pm) is enclosed) and introduce the following resolution at the end of the meeting: "that the State of Wisconsin adopt a moratorium on all sulfide mining until there is a comprehensive regional environmental impact statement on mining in northern Wisconsin."  In addition, there are several people running for positions as county representatives in the WCC that deserve our vote.  They are: Jim Bray (Marathon County); Nick Van Der Puy (Vilas County); and Virginia Jach-Richards (Lincoln County).

 Another important group we need to educate is the Wisconsin Lakes Convention.  They will be meeting on April 16-17, 1993 at the Holiday Inn in Stevens Point.  There is a $33 registration fee, payable to U.W. Extension.  Send your check, by April 8, to Diane Lueck, UWEX, College of Natural Resources, Univ. of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, WI 54481; TEL. (715) 346-3783. A block of rooms is being held at the Holiday Inn until March 25. Call 800-922-7880 and ask for the Lakes Convention block. $49 single, $62 double.  Other motels within two blocks: Comfort Inn Suites 800-228-5150; Road Star 715-341-9090; Super 8, 715-341-8888. Bob Schmitz of the Wolf River Watershed Alliance has been going to this meeting and has been the lone voice speaking out about mining.  He needs some support this year.

 Bob Schmitz,  Roscoe Churchill, Walt Bresette and Fred Ackley will be giving a press conference about the Ladysmith mine at the State Capitol Assembly Parlor room at noon Friday, March 26, 1993. They will be urging the legislature to adopt a mining moratorium and putting the industry on notice that there is a growing opposition to mining in both Indian and non-Indian communities in the northwoods. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,  

Al Gedicks, WRPC Exec. Sec.



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