Feb
20
2021
Oct
26
2019
PENNY MULLINS, EH news editor/digital director
October 24, 2019
Eagle Herald
GREEN BAY — A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Coalition to Save the Menominee River against the developers of the Back Forty Mine in Menominee County, as well as several federal agencies.
by Mark Doremus
August 23, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/back40film/
Mine developer Aquila Resources, Inc., has held at least two private, off-the-record meetings with local government officials, seeking support for its proposed Back Forty mine in Menominee County, Michigan.
Aug
24
2019
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.
Aug
24
2019
Why the sudden change to approve copper-zinc mine? Will it pollute Lake Michigan?
by Bruce Murphy
August 20, 2019
![Aftermath of the Brumadinho dam collapse in Brazil. Photo by TV NBR [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]](https://urbanmilwaukee.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Resumo_da_agenda_do_Presidente_da_República_26.01.2019_video_screenshot_01_cropped.jpg)
Aftermath of the Brumadinho dam collapse in Brazil. Photo by TV NBR (CC BY 3.0)
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.
Aug
16
2019
by Keith Matheny
August 13, 2019
Over and over, Michigan environmental regulators sounded alarms as they reviewed a proposed large, open-pit ore mine in the Upper Peninsula near the Menominee River, prized for walleye fishing and a major tributary to Lake Michigan. The mine would send acidic mining wastes into the river and surrounding waterways, which would then spill into the Great Lake, staff said. More acres of wetlands would be harmed than the mining company was projecting, evaluators found.
Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then-Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved the mine anyway.
Aug
16
2019
by Keith Matheny
August 13, 2019
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality agreed last year to participate in a web meeting with an applicant for a controversial, open-pit mine in the Upper Peninsula, specifically to avoid creating a public record out of information the applicant wanted to show the agency.
Jun
28
2019
by Penny Mullins
June 27, 2019
EagleHerald/Rick Gebhard
Speakers were set up with the back to the audience as citizens voice their concerns speaking to the panel during the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (formerly the DEQ) hearing Tuesday at Stephenson High School.
STEPHENSON — The public hearing held Tuesday by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, formerly known as the Department of Environmental Quality, brought out hundreds of people to the large gymnasium at Stephenson High School — all of whom had a message for the agency deciding on the future of permits for the Back Forty Mine.
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.”
Feb
19
2019
by Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
agedicks@eagle.uwlax.edu
Aquila’s “Upstream” dam construction method poses unacceptable risks to downstream communities and the Menominee River
The proposed Back Forty tailings waste storage uses the upstream dam construction method.
