July 2018 Newsletter
July 5, 2018
Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,
On June 4, 2018, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued the final required permit for Aquila’s controversial Back Forty open-pit sulfide mine next to the Menominee River on the Michigan-Wisconsin border. Environmental groups and the Menominee Indian Tribe were outraged at the unwarranted approval and are calling on DEQ Director C. Heidi Grether to explain her decision.
MDEQ lets Aquila write its own permit
The MDEQ decision is a fundamental violation of their legal responsibility under the Clean Water Act to evaluate the impact of this project on wetlands, aquatic resources and the Menominee River. MDEQ has issued a permit without the faintest idea of what the impacts may be and entrusted Aquila with the responsibility of assessing the impacts and taking appropriate actions to prevent the adverse impacts that are prohibited under the Clean Water Act. This is the same thing as letting the mining company write their own permit without transparency or accountability to the public, the Menominee Indian Tribe or the environment.
“This smells rotten” (from a joint statement of the Mining Action Group of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, the Front 40 Environmental Fight and numerous environmental groups)
“Director Grether’s approval of the Aquila Back Forty Wetland permit was a political act, directly contradicting the recommendation of DEQ’s own Water Resources Division. This permit is inconsistent with the Clean Water Act,” said Kathleen Heideman of the Mining Action Group.
The Wetland permit should have been denied, according to the agency’s Findings of Fact
“After due consideration of the permit application, on-site investigation and review of other pertinent materials, the Water Resources Division finds that the project does NOT demonstrate that an unacceptable disruption to the aquatic resources of the State will not occur and that the activities associated with the project are NOT consistent with the permitting criteria for an acceptable impact to the resources regulated under Parts 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, and Part 303, Wetlands Protection.”
Even the DEQ’s decision was not an endorsement
“We have determined that the (Back Forty) project as proposed could not be permitted without additional supporting documentation because the hydrologic modeling provided does not define the anticipated impacts to aquatic resources.”
“Why wasn’t this permit denied?”
Ron Henriksen, spokesperson for the Front 40 Environmental Fight was stunned by the decision. “Against the findings of Water Resources staff, Director Grether of the DEQ granted a permit with 28 pages of ‘Special Conditions.’…The serious hydrological concerns we’ve raised remain unaddressed. Aquila’s mine will harm wetlands of the Menominee River and aquatic resources shared by Michigan and Wisconsin, yet these concerns were somehow overruled. The Menominee River certainly deserves better.” The “special conditions” that DEQ requested Aquila to submit includes revised water drawdown estimates and wetland and stream mitigation.
Under the Clean Water Act, however, this information must be provided BEFORE a wetland destruction permit is granted, not after.
Menominee Tribal Concerns Not Addressed
“Our Tribe maintains our stance against this open pit mine project, and we made our objection throughout the permitting process,” said Douglas Cox, the tribe’s chairman. “We are not surprised by the issuance of the wetlands permit by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, but we are surprised that many of the concerns raised by the public, tribes and EPA were not addressed.” Tribal officials have raised concerns about potential harm to burial grounds, sacred sites, agricultural gardens and village sites.
Aquila Cannot Move Forward While There Are Legal Challenges to Permits
The Menominee Tribe is currently in the process of challenging one of the four permits granted to Aquila and has 60 days to challenge the latest wetland permit. “As long as anyone is challenging any of the steps in the process, they cannot move forward until those challenges are finalized,” said Chairman Cox. In addition to administrative challenges, the Tribe has sued the EPA in federal court, claiming that the EPA “has failed and refused their duty in favor of allowing the State of Michigan to exercise primary jurisdiction over the Menominee River and adjacent wetlands.” The Clean Water Act generally requires multi-jurisdictional approval on waterways that are shared between two states, such as the Menominee River.
The Back Forty Opposition Continues
“People who love our land and water – including our indigenous brothers and sisters – and those who have raised their children here and want to see their grandchildren grow up in this area, are the same people who will stand in total opposition to the proposed Aquila mine,” said Dale Burie, president of the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River.
Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River Fundraising Event
On Friday, July 27, 2018, the Coalition is having a fundraising event at the Wilmar Neighborhood Center, 953 Jenifer Street in Madison, from 7:00-10:00 pm. Musical performers will include Wade Fernandez, Kelly Jackson, Dale Burie and the Coalition Band.
“They have their four permits, but they don’t have a social license. The community is not welcoming them,” said Regina Chaltry of the Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River
On May 15, 2018 the Town of Peshtigo joined 7 counties, 3 towns, 3 cities and numerous Indian Tribes, environmental and fishing groups and faith-based organizations in passing resolutions against the Back Forty project. The town’s resolution reads, in part, “…Whereas water being contaminated would cause economic losses including but not limited to reduction of values of property, loss of tourism revenue, as well as cost of cleaning up the water and are not factored into the permitting process, and whereas the hazardous wastes generated by the mine would degrade water quality and presents risks to human health as well as the environment in the surrounding area…”
Oneida County’s Board of Supervisors Votes for Mining Despite Widespread Opposition
According to Karl Fate, a member of Oneida County Clean Waters Action (occwa.org), “Oneida County has no obligation to facilitate a Mining District in our County.” However, “because of State Sen. Tom Tiffany’s law (2017 Wisconsin Act 134) that repeals the Mining Moratorium Law, the state’s counties were given six months to develop a mining ordinance, supposedly to ‘protect themselves.’ Oneida County already has a Metallic Mining Ordinance…On August 21, 2012 the Oneida County Board voted to end a proposed plan to lease the County Forest for metallic mining.”
“However, three of the supervisors on the committee that wanted to allow mining in areas zoned Forestry 1-A back in 2012, are also on the Planning and Development Committee that is rewriting Oneida County’s ordinance…The current process is being used, to try again, to allow sulfide mining in areas Zoned Forestry 1-A, to ‘grease the skids’ for a mine at Lynne. Let’s be perfectly clear. A massive sulfide mine at Lynne does not “protect the integrity of the county’s forested lands by preserving such land in a relatively natural state” (Oneida County Ordinance)
At the June 6, 2018 public hearing before the Planning and Development Committee, Karl Fate testified “The taxpayers of Oneida County are sick and tired of having our tax dollars used to weaken the protection of our lakes and other water resources because of threats coming from sources outside our county. The ultimate responsibility for creating this threatening atmosphere in our county and across the state lies squarely in the lap of Sen. Tom Tiffany, who has no problem spending public resources catering to corporate special interests.”
On June 19, 2018, the Oneida County Board decided to allow sulfide mines in areas zoned 1-A Forestry and General Use.”
After my own testimony at the June 6 hearing, Sen. Tiffany and the editors at the Lakeland Times/River News launched a smear campaign against me and Oneida County environmental activists fighting for clean water (see enclosed rebuttal from occwa.org). This is what the mining industry does when they are at loss to defend the record of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has called the most toxic industry in America.
Stay tuned,
Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary