Wisconsin tribe tries to block open-pit mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
by Carol Thompson
February 10, 2020
LANSING — A Wisconsin tribe is challenging Michigan’s decision to issue a permit for an open-pit mine proposed in the Upper Peninsula, the latest in a series of attempts to stop the controversial project from moving forward.
Aquila Resources, a Canadian exploration company, wants to open a controversial mine on the Michigan side of the Menominee River, the border between the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin. (Photo: Deborah Skubal, Deborah Skubal/Milwaukee Journal)
The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin is appealing the Michigan Environmental Permit Review Commission’s decision to grant Aquila Resources an amended permit for its Back Forty mine project in Menominee County near the state’s border with Wisconsin.
The permit was issued despite the tribe’s concerns a mine would pollute the Menominee River and damage cultural resources like burial grounds and unique agricultural sites, tribal attorneys argued.
“It’s really going to change the nature of this area from rural, recreational, seasonal type of area to a heavy industrial area,” said Gussie Lord, an Earth Justice attorney representing the tribe.
The tribe is asking a judge to deny the permit, according to the appeal filed in Ingham County Circuit Court in late January.
EGLE is reviewing the filing and will respond in court, spokesperson Scott Dean said in an email.
About the Back Forty mine
Canadian mining company Aquila Resources wants to build an open-pit gold, zinc and copper mine on a 1,000-plus acre site along the Menominee River. The pit itself would be about 83 acres, mine Chief Operating Officer Michael Welch said.
The company expects mining operations to last seven years, generate more than $20 million in annual local, state and federal taxes and create 240 full-time jobs.
Welch said “there is a balance to be struck” with the interests of economic development, job creation, the environment and mining for metals used in commercial products. He argued the company has successfully shown its operations will be safe despite appeals from the tribe.
“We’re following the permitting process we’re expected to follow,” Welch said.
The site of the mine is in historic tribal territory that was traded away in a treaty signed in the late-1800s, Lord said. Tribal members don’t trust a mine can operate so close to the river without threatening it.
Drilling into rock surrounding the valuable ore at the Back Forty site would release acid into the river and groundwater, harming the plants and animals that rely on it, Lord said.
“It’s going to change the chemical makeup of the water,” she said.
The Menominee River is central to the tribe’s creation story dating back 13,000 years, Menominee Indian Tribe Vice-Chair Douglas Cox said.
The river also has a history of bearing industrial pollution.
The lower portion of the Menominee is listed as an Area of Concern by the Environmental Protection Agency because it was polluted by arsenic and other chemicals that leached from nearby manufacturing plants.
The Menominee River is largely cleaned, EPA records show, and eligible for removal from the registry of toxic sites. Tribal members believe the Back Forty mine will threaten that progress.
“They’re going to do all of that… effort to say ‘look we cleaned up the river of arsenic and mercury and now we’re removing it from the list,’ yet 30 miles upstream there’s this massive open-pit mine literally 150 feet from the river,” Cox said.
Ingham County appeal is latest in years-long battle
Throughout the permitting dispute, tribal leaders have felt like Michigan has treated them like members of an environmental advocacy group instead of a sovereign nation, Cox said.
“Everywhere else we go to consult with states and governments, that seat at the table is always recognized as government-to-government level discussions,” he said. “In Michigan, it’s been a tug of war.”
The tribe has fought the Back Forty project since 2016 when EGLE, then known as the Department of Environmental Quality, approved a mining permit “despite overwhelming public opposition to the project based on its location, impacts to the Menominee River and other natural resources, and impacts to the cultural resources of the Menominee people located on the project site,” according to appeal in Ingham County.
An administrative law judge upheld the mining permit late last year and sent it back to Michigan’s Environmental Permit Review Commission for review.
The commission — criticized by environmental groups as a “polluter panel” because it includes heavy representation from industry groups — upheld the administrative judge’s approval and agreed issue a new permit last year.
EGLE issued the company an updated mining permit and new air permit in December. Aquila withdrew its dam safety permit and is awaiting an administrative judge’s decision on a similar appeal the Menominee Indian Tribe filed about its wetlands permit.
The Back Forty project can’t move forward until the company has all of its permits in hand. Welch said he expects that to happen in mid-2021.
More: Upper Peninsula mine approved despite major concerns from DEQ and EPA staff, records show
Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.
