Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

August 20, 2020

Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,

Aquila Resources continues to provide misleading and inaccurate information about the status of the Back Forty project in its most recent financial report. The company’s June 2020 report states, “The Company has received the four primary permits required to commence construction and operations at Back Forty.”

Aquila has no Back Forty Dam Permit

However, the company has not yet submitted a revised Dam Safety Permit application since Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) rejected Aquila’s original application as incomplete and requested additional information. According to EGLE, “Aquila is not authorized to begin construction of the mine and will not be able to proceed until all permits, including the Dam Safety Permit have been approved by EGLE.”

January 9, 2020

Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,

January 25 marks the one-year anniversary of the Brazilian mine tailings dam rupture that released almost 3 billion gallons of toxic mine waste and killed 270 people in Brazil’s deadliest-ever mining accident. After the catastrophic failure, Brazil not only banned the upstream design at issue in the disaster for future mines, but mandated that every existing mine tailings dam of that design be decommissioned. As I’ve written in an extensive background report, why would Wisconsin and Michigan residents put up with what Brazil will not? The report is online at UrbanMilwaukee.com

Mine on Wisconsin border would use approach that has resulted in 46 catastrophic failures in last 20 years.

by Al Gedicks

December 13, 2019

UrbanMilwaukee.com

For the communities downstream from the proposed Back Forty open pit mine on the Michigan-Wisconsin border, the threat of a massive release of toxic mine waste into the Menominee River is a nightmare scenario. Why would Wisconsin and Michigan residents put up with what Brazil will not?  After a catastrophic mine tailings dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil killed 270 people in January of 2019 Brazil not only banned that design for future mines, but mandated that every existing mine tailings dam of that design be decommissioned. The dam collapse was the world’s deadliest in more than 50 years.

August 20, 2019

Eagle Herald

Dear Editor,

The Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River Inc. filed suit in Michigan State Court contesting the signing of the Wetlands Permit which contains 28 pages of single-spaced conditions to be met by Aquila before the permit is valid. The court case is not over, so no decision has been made by Judge Pulter. Yet, Aquila has chosen to lie in their advertising on TV-6, Marquette; TV-5, Green Bay; and TV-11, Green Bay, telling the public they have all the permits and will be mining in 2020. This information is not true.

Why the sudden change to approve copper-zinc mine? Will it pollute Lake Michigan?

by Bruce Murphy

August 20, 2019

UrbanMilwaukee.com

This is a story about an open pit copper, zinc and gold mine on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan that could pollute the waters of both states, including Lake Michigan and also endanger sacred burial grounds of the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin. Scientific staff of both the State of Michigan and federal EPA had significant concerns about the proposed mine with the homey name of the Back Forty Project, and were unsatisfied with responses by Aquila Resources, a Canadian start-up company with no experience operating such a mine.

April 3, 2019

Dear WRPC Member and Friends of the Menominee River,

Aquila’s full-page ad in the March 2, 2019 edition of the Eagle Herald sought to reassure the public about the safety of the Back Forty’s proposed tailings storage facility in light of the recent Brazilian tailings dam disaster that killed over 200 people with an estimated 91 others still missing and presumed buried under mud. This is Brazil’s deadliest-ever mining accident. A steady stream of letters to the editor of the Eagle Herald have expressed serious public concerns about the safety of Aquila’s tailings dam design.

by Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council

Aquila’s Communications Manager Dan Blondeau has claimed that the tailings management facility at the Back Forty is not a traditional upstream raised tailings dam design and that it is “significantly different” from the failed Brumadinho tailings dam in Brazil. Blondeau says that “Our facility was designed to mitigate the known risks of common upstream raised tailings facilities.”