Newsletters 2000

November 10, 2000
September 15, 2000
July 17, 2000
March 6, 2000

November 10, 2000

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

Judge Geske heard arguments in the case of Nicolet Minerals v. Town of Nasville on October 19 in Crandon. Among the crowded courtroom of mine opponents wearing patches announcing "Support Democracy for Nashville, Wisconsin, No Crandon Mine!" was Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona La Duke and the Indigo Girls, who joined mine opponents for a feast afterwards hosted by Mole Lake. 

Judge Geske postponed her decision so that both parties can try to mediate their differences in a series of mediation sessions. If the parties cannot reach a solution, she will return to Crandon on Thursday,  February 22, 2001 and announce her decision. The Town of Nashville has placed a number of conditions upon its participation in such sessions, including 1) that the meetings be open to the public; 2) that Nicolet's new owner, the South African mining firm Billiton, be present for the discussions;  and 3) that Nicolet honor Mole Lake's water quality standards as part of the local agreement. Whether Nicolet will agree to these conditions remains to be seen.

As of October 17, 2000, Rio Algom and its Nicolet Minerals subsidiary are now owned by the South African mining company Billiton. During the drawn out bidding war between Billiton and Noranda, Wisconsin mine opponents warned both mining companies that the Crandon project is a risky investment that has been a financial black hole for all four companies that have planned it over the past 25 years. After purchasing Rio Algom, Billiton Senior Corporate Affairs Manager Marc Gonsalves told the Wausau Daily Herald that "we don't like to be where we're not wanted," and that the company is looking at Crandon mine concerns "very carefully" because it has received an "endless stream of e-mails" from around Wisconsin and the world. What part of "No Crandon Mine!" doesn't he understand?  His e-mail is mgonsalves@billiton.com

Mark your calendars for a big rally against the mine and transmission line sponsored by Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL) and Wolf Watershed Education Project (WWEP) on Tuesday, November 28, 2000 in Rhinelander at the Holiday Inn (just off of Business Hwy 8) at  8:00am and 12 noon. This is the first Public Service Commission (PSC) hearing on the transmission line. For more background on the issue, see Winona La Duke's article enclosed. Other public hearings are scheduled for Tomahawk (Nov. 29), Abbotsford (Nov. 30), Wausau (Dec. 1), Superior (Dec. 4), Hayward (Dec. 6) and Ladysmith (Dec. 7). For specific times and places, call SOUL 800-270-8455. Visit their website at www.wakeupwisconsin.com.  Stay tuned.

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.

Nashville Summary Judgement Hearing
by Al Gedicks.  Also posted at http://www.nocrandonmine.com/ag102400.html

This is my understanding of the main points that were discussed on October 19, 2000 at the Crandon court hearing in the case of Nicolet Minerals v. Town of Nashville

1. The central argument of the Town of Nashville is that municipalities in Wisconsin have the right to reconsider and rescind their previous legislative actions, provided vested rights are not violated.

2. Nicolet Minerals Co. (NMC) contends that it does indeed have vested contractual rights in the local agreement because it has "invested more than $25 million" in developing the proposed Crandon mine since December 1996, in "reasonable reliance on the validity of its local agreements, including this Local Agreement with Nashville." Thus Nicolet is claiming that the Local Agreement is merely a municipal contract that Nashville has no right to rescind.

3. The Town of Nashville responds that this contractual claim "flies directly in the face of the provisions of the Local Agreement that plainly attempt to exercise and apply Nashville's zoning and police powers" to the proposed Crandon mine by supposedly granting NMC "all conditional use, planned development and other permits, and all approvals, variances or amendments, that are or may be required for mining" for the life of NMC's proposed mine. Glenn Stoddard, the town's attorney, quoted NMC's Dick Diotte that this was "one stop shopping" for the company.

These provisions of the Local Agreement make it much more than a municipal contract, because zoning provisions are enacted in accord with the police power of municipalities and it is well established that a municipality may not surrender or contract away governmental functions or powers, or inhibit the exercise of its police or legislative powers.  Thus, if NMC is claiming that it has only contractual rights in the Local Agreement, those rights cannot legally involve the provisions of the Local Agreement that plainly attempt to exercise, apply and contract away Nashville's zoning and police powers over the proposed Crandon mine, because those provisions cannot be contracted away.

4. At the outset of the October 19 hearing, Judge Geske announced that NMC had conceded that the Local Agreement was a legislative action with contractual provisions. This was a major concession by NMC.  The question now was whether NMC had a "vested interest" in the Local Agreement.

5. Having conceded that they cannot have any vested rights in the zoning provisions of the Local Agreement for the reasons stated in #3 above, NMC claims that its vested interests are based on "the expenditures it made in reliance on the local agreement."  The problem, as the Town of Nashville argues, is that Article 2 of the Local Agreement supercedes and bargains away all of Nashville's present zoning controls over NMC's proposed mining operations. And NMC cannot have any vested rights in the zoning provisions of the Local Agreement.

6. In response to questioning by Judge Geske why monies expended for permits are not a "vested interest,"  Glenn Stoddard replied that most of the money spent in pursuit of the permits has been spent on engineering studies not directly related to Nashville.

7. Furthermore, if NMC made investments in the proposed mine in "reasonable reliance on the validity of its local agreements, including this Local Agreement with Nashville," it did so unreasonably, given the legal and political challenges to its validity in the Ward/WRPC case regarding violations of the open meetings law and at the ballot box in April 1997 when four of the five town board members were voted out of office by an anti-mining slate. This also ignores the enactment of the Mining Moratorium legislation by the Wiscosin legislature.

8. Finally, the argument that the Local Agreement law itself is unconstitutional had to be dropped because the Town of Nashville did not have legal standing to argue that case. A lesser sovereign (the town) cannot challenge the constitutional authority of a greater sovereign (the state).

For more information about the Town of Nashville's struggle against Nicolet Minerals Company, visit http:// www.nashvillewiundersiege.com/index.html

September 15, 2000

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

The August 11 hearing on the Nashville Local Agreement case has been rescheduled for Thursday, September 21 @ 10:00am at the Crandon courthouse. Judge P. Charles Jones fell ill and withdrew from the case. Former state Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske will hear the case (see article enclosed). WRPC urges everyone who can attend to come and demonstrate your support for Nashville's current town board.The Nashville town hall was recently targeted with vandalism. According to town chairman, Chuck Sleeter, "the building is basically destroyed." 

You can be sure that the mining company will have their own supporters in the courtroom that day. The Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin has printed up stickers (see enclosed) that will be available at the hearing. Because these court dates are subject to change at short notice, you should call the Forest County Circuit Court Clerk to confirm that the hearing is still on. The phone number is (715) 478-3323.

The future of the Crandon mine project is uncertain as Rio Algom is in the middle of a takeover battle between British mining conglomerate Billiton and Toronto-based Noranda. Billiton's $1.7 billion offer is higher than an earlier offer by Noranda but the Canadian company may make a counter offer. 

Regardless of the outcome of the bidding war, whichever company takes over Rio Algom will have to evaluate whether it makes economic sense to continue pouring money into a project which is plagued with unsolved technical problems and a widespread opposition movement determined to prevent the mine from opening. A legisative bill is pending to prohibit cyanide use (enclosed flyer).

Noranda is already well-acquainted with Wisconsin's mining oppositon movement, having been forced to abandon their plans to develop the Lynne project in Onedia County. The Australian mining giant BHP dropped its Wisconsin mine plans, as did Exxon after two unsuccessful attempts to develop the Crandon project. North American Mining magazine (Aug/ Sept. 1998) summed it up nicely: "The increasingly sophisticated political maneuvering by environmental special interest groups have made permitting a mine in Wisconsin an impossibility."

In the meantime, we need to keep up the pressure. Thanks to all who sent in their membership renewals and contributions to the legal defense fund. If you haven't yet sent in your membership dues ($15 regular, or $5 senior/low income), please use the enclosed envelope to help us pay our  expenses and our attorneys. 

WRPC is now on the web! Check us out: www.wrpc.net. The e-mail address for the site is: info@wrpc.net. The full web address is: http://www.wrpc.net/index.html

Stay tuned.

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.

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

March 6, 2000

Dear WRPC/WATER Network Member,

The good news is that WRPC won its lawsuit charging the former Nashville town board with 55 violations of the state's open meetings law when it secretly negotiated a local agreement with Exxon/Rio Algom (see enclosed article). From 1993 through December 1996 the former board held a series of illegally closed meetings in which these violations of the law took place. They admitted that the local agreement was the end result of all of these violations and that no legal open meeting on the agreement ever took place prior to the one in which they "approved" the document. At that meeting the public objected to the "approval" by a margin of four to one. On the basis of this admission, WRPC asked the court to void the local agreement because the process that led to its signing was illegal.

The bad news came on February 3 when Oneida County Circuit Court Judge Mark Mangerson accepted the argument of the mining company attorneys that the local agreement could not be thrown out  because the final meeting used to approve the agreement was legal. "His decision," says current Nashville town chariman Chuck Sleeter, "sends the message that local government officials can shut the public out of local government meetings illegally, make a sweetheart agreement with a big corporation, and keep that agreement from being voided by a court of law under the open meetings law, as long as there is a phony open meeting held where the public can speak its mind about the agreement before it is formally 'approved' by the local officials."  This is a corruption of the democratic process. WRPC and our attorney, Glenn Reynolds, are planning to appeal this decision.

Citizen efforts to enforce the Churchill Mining Moratorium law were blocked when the Natural Resources Board voted unanimously against writing rules to implement the law. Despite support for rule making by 32 state legislators and 42 citizen groups, the seven member board sided with DNR Secretary Meyer and Governor Thompson to reject rules that would clarify some of the law's vague points. In rejecting the rule-making request, the board gives the DNR the go-ahead to misinterpret the law to the advantage of the mining company behind closed doors. This is not the end of this battle. The next move is to get the Joint Legislative Rules Committee to write rules or direct the DNR to do so.

In the meantime, the Wolf Watershed Educational Project is continuing to reach out to youth all around the state through its 1999-2000 statewide speaking tour. Speakers have responded to numerous requests 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 to culminate in an April 29th Student/Youth Rally to Stop the Crandon Mine at the State Capitol (flyer enclosed). See you in Madison on Saturday, the 29th!

Al Gedicks, Exec. Sec.