Newsletters 1999

December 6, 1999
July 9, 1999
May 29, 1999
February 22, 1999

December 6, 1999

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

On Saturday, November 13 the opponents of Rio Algom's proposed Crandon mine joined forces with opponents to a high voltage transmission line for a rally held at the intersection of Highways 8 and 45/47 in Monico, 12 miles west of Crandon. The rally, sponsored by the Wolf Watershed Educational Project, drew public attention to the proposed construction of a 115 kilovolt (kv) feeder transmission line from Rhinelander to the mine site at Mole Lake. The larger, 345 kv transmission line, from Duluth to Wausau,  would use power from a controversial hydroelectric project at Cross Lake, Manitoba, opposed by the Pimicikamak Cree Nation. Members of Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL), spoke about their concerns for the land that would be affected by the 250 mile long High Voltage corridor and their solidarity with the native people opposing the project in Mole Lake, Lac Courte Oreilles and Cross Lake. The rally was the beginning of a new stage in building a regional and international alliance opposed to an interconnected corporate network of dams, powerlines and mines. For more information on the transmission line connection to the mine, see the Midwest Treaty Network web site at  http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/powerline.html

The refusal of the DNR to write rules for the Churchill Mining Moratorium Law led to a petition asking the Natural Resources Board to order the DNR to write such rules. DNR Secretary George Meyer recommended at the September 29th Board meeting that the rules petition be rejected. In response to eloquent testimony by various conservation and environmental groups, the Board asked DNR staff to rewrite their critique of the petition again and address all concerns raised in the petition for the December 8 Board meeting scheduled for 8:30am at the Madison DNR office,Room 027, GEF II Building, 101 South Webster St. We have been told we may be the 2nd item on the agenda. While the Board will not take further testimony on this issue, a strong public turnout for the meeting will send a message to the board and the media about the importance of this decision.  For further background on the politics of the mining moratorium law see the enclosed article by Mitch Bent.

Regardless of the Board's decision, the intent of the Churchill Mining Moratorium Law will only be implemented if there is a continuing mobilization of public sentiment on this issue. To promote this goal, the Wolf Watershed Educational Project (WWEP) is starting a 1999-2000 statewide speaking tour, aimed at getting youth involved in the issue. Speakers will be available to speak to grade school, middle school, high school and college audiences, and off-campus youth groups. The goal is to use the school year to educate and organize youth, culminating in a May 2000 Wisconsin Youth Rally to Stop the Crandon Mine, with participation from all age groups. To invite speakers, see the Mining Speakers Bureau at http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/speakers.html
 
While WRPC's open meetings lawsuit is very close to a settlement, the former Nashville town board members are still quibbling about the wording of their admitted violations in the findings of fact. Once the judge signs off on the stipulation, we will ask that the entire local agreement be thrown out.

In the meantime, Rio Algom, the parent company of Nicolet Minerals, announced that they were writing down the assets of their Crandon zinc-copper project from $76 million to zero due to what they called "the extended permit process in Wisconsin."  The Canadian trade publication, The Northern Miner, reported (11/8/99) that the writedown of the Crandon project and other assets resulted in a major loss of $203 million (or $3.44 per share) on revenue of $488 million during the three months ending September 30. While this does not mean that Rio Algom is pulling out of the project, it does mean that Crandon is not a priority for scarce investment dollars.  Continuing problems with the groundwater model for the Crandon project have further delayed DNR plans to release a draft Environmental Impact Statement on the project.

Finally, it is with great sadness that I report on the recent passing of another environmental warrior - Gertrude Dixon of Stevens Point. She was a co-founder and leader of LAND - League Against Nuclear Dangers, a grassroots citizens' group that organized in 1973 to oppose the siting of a nuclear power plant in the town of Rudolph, near Stevens Point. LAND members brought in nationally-known authorities on the hazards of nuclear energy for a lecture series at the Univrsity of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to educate themselves and the public about the proposed power plant. LAND successfully lobbied  the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to establish a public documents repository library in Stevens Point which they used to educate themselves and then challenge the reassurances of local utility executives about the safety of the technology. After several public debates with utility executives Gertrude concluded that these so-called experts are just "poorly informed public relations agents at best." When legislators and others in authority expressed amazement at Gertrude's ability to make sense out of complex materials, she would tell them that all of the NRC documents were written in the English langugage. With her background (she had a master's degree in English) she said, "I am trained to do this." As a result of LAND's organizing and public education, local citizens  overwhelmingly rejected the plant in an advisory referendum to the town board. The plant was never built.

But LAND's work on nuclear issues had only begun. Gertrude and other LAND researchers went on to collaborate with a nuclear engineer at the University of Minnesota in a study of how much radiation childern growing up in Wisconsin were receiving through the food chain as a result of radioative fallout from atomic weapons tests (Methodologies for the Study of Low Level Radiation in the Midwest, by Charles Huver, Gertrude Dixon, Naomi Jacobson and George Dixon, 1979).  Dr. John Gofman, a noted authority on nuclear radiation and human health, praised the study, noting that "careful research can be better done by 'non-experts' with a dedication to truth than a carload of 'experts' with a vested interest."

Her courage and dedication were sustained by "a love of the land, by a respect for life and a belief that the will of an informed public will not allow the fission proponents to destroy our world." She was and continues to be an inspiration to many of us in the grassroots environmental movement.

Stay tuned.

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.

July 9, 1999

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

The Town of Nashville local agreement is under attack on all sides. Just prior to our June 7 court date, the former town board offered to settle out of court by admitting their violations of the open meetings law. The details of the written admission are still being worked out, but the bottom line is that their admitted violations will be accepted by the Court as findings of fact. Once this agreement is signed we plan to ask the judge to reconsider his earlier ruling that he would not void the local agreement.

In the meantime, the Town of Nashville has responded to the lawsuit filed against it by Rio Algom (aka Nicolet Minerals) over the town's cancellation of the local agreement for the proposed Crandon mine. In responding to the mining company's lawsuit, the town removed the case to Federal Court in Milwaukee and filed a countersuit against the mining company, alleging that the local agreement resulted from a conspiracy by the mining company and the town's former attorney (Kevin Lyons) to defraud the town of its zoning authority over the proposed mining operations. The town alleges in its countersuit that Kevin Lyons agreed to recommend approval of the local agreement by the former town board in return for the mining company's agreement to pay him over $350,000 for past due legal fees and expenses supposedly incurred while reprsenting the town.

The local agreement also came under attack in the state budget debate. Senator Robert Cowles (R-Allouez) attached an amendment to the budget bill which would allow local municipalities that have negotiated local agreements to reopen negotiations if new information becomes available before the DNR begins hearings on the mine permit (see enclosed story). The Assemby Republicans took the amendment out of the budget and the Senate Democrats failed to put the amendment back into the budget. Senator Cowles has said he will reintroduce the amendment during the Senate floor debate on the budget.

As the mine permit process moves forward there are serious problems with the company's groundwater computer model which you can read about in the enclosed article from Masinaigan. And that model mine in Ladysmith that the industry has pointed to as an example of a "clean mine" is now releasing acid and heavy metals In fact, the sulfate level in the monitoring well between the end of the waste pit and the Flambeau River has already exceeded federal drinking water standards by nearly two-fold!

While we have had a good response to our membership renewal reminder and appeal for our legal defense fund, there are still many that have not yet sent in their renewals. If you are among those, please take this opportunity to send in your membership renewal ($15 or $5 senior/low income) in the enclosed envelope today. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,  Al Gedicks, Exec.Sec.

May 29, 1999

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

The protection of the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa's wild rice beds has always been one of the critical issues in the battle against Exxon/Rio Algom's proposed Crandon mine. Both the State of Wisconsin and Exxon had sued the EPA over granting Mole Lake the authority to set water quality standards on its reservation to protect tribal members and their wild rice from upstream mining pollution. On April 28, 1999, the U.S. District Court dismissed the State of Wisconsin's suit against the EPA and Mole Lake. This is a major cause for celebration because it says the Tribe cannot rely on the Wisconsin DNR to protect its water and wild rice resources from mining pollution. 

In response to the DNR's attempt to subvert the Churchill Mining Moratorium Law by misinterpreting the law to favor Rio Algom's pathetic examples of "safe mines" we are launching a campaign to "Take Back the Churchill Mining Moratorim Law Now!"  See the enclosed information sheet and sample resolution. Please consider asking other organizations to pass this or a similar resolution urging the DNR to enforce the Moratorium Law and promulgate rules for it. Then forward the resolution to Sec. Meyer and members of the Natrural Resources Board (see the action alert for addresses). Also consider writing letters in support of enforcement of the Moratorium Law to the editors of local papers.

In my last letter I mentioned that Rio Algom had filed a "Notice of Claim" saying that the Nashville town board's cancellation of the local agreement was illegal. Before this case comes to trial however, the actions of the previous Nashville town board in excluding the local citizens from the entire decision-making process which led up to the so-called local agreement, will be aired in a civil trial in Marathon County Court in Wausau, beginning on Monday, June 7.

The Plaintiffs in this trial, which include Tom Ward and the Forest County Chapter of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council are charging the former town board  with repeated violations of the state's open meetings law. The testimony in this trial will shine a spotlight on how one of the most powerful corporations in the world was able to manipulate a town board into giving them a blank check for their mining project. Once this evidence becomes part of the public record, it will be very difficult for Nicolet Minerals to convince another court that the outcome of this unfair, illegal and undemocratic process ought to be honored by the present Nashville town board.

Our attorney, Glenn Reynolds, has generously donated his time to pursue this case but we still have major expenses to pay. Please use the enclosed envelope to mail in an early WRPC membership renewal and add whatever you can afford toward our legal defense fund. Annual dues are $15 or $5 senior/low income. If you can afford an additional $15 for legal expenses, that would help us greatly. Stay tuned.
 
Sincerely,  Al Gedicks, Exec.Sec.

February 22, 1999

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

Despite Rio Algom's "good neighbor" policy to promote the proposed Crandon mine, the top executives in Toronto don't seem to be listening too well. Nashville town board chairman Chuck Sleeter, as well as Duane Marshall and Robert Van Zile, won their positions in 1997 by promising to open government to the citizens, to undo the so-called Local Agreement and to fight to prevent this mine from being built.

As soon as the town board voted to scrap the local agreement which had been negotiated in secret and in violation of the state's open meetings law, Rio Algom filed a "Notice of Claim" saying the town's cancellation of the agreement was illegal. In direct correspondence with Nashville citizens, Rio Algom's Nicolet Minerals implicitly threatened to bankrupt the town through litigation.

 The Nashville town board and a majority of its citizens are committed to protecting the town's environment, and the health and safety of its citizens by standing up to Rio Algom. The town has established a legal defense fund to help cover the legal expenses necessary to defend itself. Any contributions to it is considered a charitable contribution and is therefore tax deductible. Nashville citizens have established a web site titled "Nashville Wisconsin Under Siege!" at http://www.nashvillewiundersiege.com/index.html Tax deductible contributions may be made to: Town of Nashville Legal Defense Fund, c/o Chuck Sleeter/Joanne Tacopina, P.O. Box 106, Pickerel, WI 54465.

The WRPC Forest County chapter will be joining with the Northwoods Alliance in a "Dinner for Democracy Banquet/Fund Raiser for the Town of Nashville" at 6:00pm on Saturday, March 20, 1999 at the Holiday Acres in Rhinelander. For more information, call (715) 453-6015.

Enclosed you will find a petition in support of Native Sovereignty and tribal regulatory authority over reservation air and water quality. The petition is in response to the State of Wisconsin's challenge of tribal regulatory authority, as granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The petition specifically requests the Attorney General to drop all lawsuits against the EPA and allow the Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa to protect tribal members and wild rice from upstream mining threats. We need to let the AG know that he doesn't represent the interests of the citizens of Wisconsin in this action.

Last but not least, Rio Algom has attempted to comply with the Churchill Mining Moratorium Law (see article enclosed). Only one of these mines, the Sacaton mine in Arizona, has actually operated and been closed for at least 10 years, meeting both conditions of the law. However, the mine was never subject to monitoring for pollution because it was closed before the state's groundwater law was passed. For this reason alone, the mine cannot meet the requirements of the law. Stay tuned.

Sincerely, 

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.