Wisconsin Citizens’ Group Seeks Community Support
For more information contact: For immediate release
Al Gedicks (608) 784-4399 May 4, 2015
agedicks@uwlax.edu
Wisconsin Citizens’ Group Struggles for Clean Water
Ordered to Pay Mining Company’s Court Costs, Seeks Community Support
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC), a small, grassroots citizens group, is a plaintiff in a Clean Water Act lawsuit related to illegal discharges of pollutants into a stream at Rio Tinto’s Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. They and their co-plaintiffs won the case in U.S. District Court and exposed the pollution from the metallic sulfide mine. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals ordered the plaintiffs, including WRPC, to pay Rio Tinto’s court costs, which total over $60,000.
This decision can have a chilling effect on the ability and willingness of ordinary citizens to speak up, and on the lawyers needed to help them. Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary of WRPC said, “If polluters can get away with bullying citizen groups like ours for trying to enforce the Clean Water Act, it will have a chilling effect on our ability and willingness to speak up about these issues.”
At one time, Wisconsin’s Flambeau Mine was touted as an example of “environmentally responsible” mining, partly as an effort to convince local citizens to allow further mining in the region. WRPC’s lawsuit demonstrated the serious pollution problems occurring on the ground at the Flambeau Mine site. In 2012 the U.S District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin found Rio Tinto to be in violation of the Clean Water Act on numerous counts at the Flambeau Mine site. The ruling was appealed.
The Court of Appeals did not dispute the lower court’s finding that Rio Tinto had discharged contaminated runoff from the Flambeau Mine site into public waters on an ongoing basis since at least 2006. Unfortunately, the decision was based on a technicality that, in effect, allowed errors made by the State of Wisconsin in its administration of the Clean Water Act to shield Rio Tinto from prosecution.
In the process, the EPA added the stream adjacent to the mine, a tributary of the Flambeau River, to their list of “impaired waters” due to copper and zinc toxicity linked to the Flambeau Mine operation.
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council is now burdened with paying nearly $20,000 to the mining company. They are seeking support from the community to help cover these costs through a fundraiser. To donate to the fund, please visit the Indiegogo online fundraising page.
For more information on Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, go to www.wrpc.net
