Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes Spring 2010 Headwaters

Defend Public Land for Hunting, Fishing, and Future Generations By Richard Sloat A Legacy of Waste: Uranium Mining in the Serpent River Watershed By Lorraine Rekmans Special Issue: Waking Up to the Realities of a Mining, Mining Economy Land& By Bob Tammen Where do we go from Water here? In This Issue Why a Special Issue on Mining? While other mass industrial activities have had a profound effect on the Great Lakes region, mining, like no other industry, has left deep environmental and economic scars.

Editor’s Note 3 Maps, Facts and Figures Many of us grew up learning of the iron ore heydays of decades past in Minnesota and Michigan, the copper booms of the Features Rio Tinto’s Infamous Treatment of Workers ...... 12 Upper Peninsula and the uranium booms around Elliot Lake, Ontario. These periods of prosperity certainly employed many, Waking Up to the Realities of a Mining Employment by the Numbers ...... 13 often at good wages, once miners were able to unionize in an from here. What elements of Sportsmen with the day’s catch, Michigan, industry notoriously hesitant to recognize workers’ rights. the past should be retained? circa 1890s; Photo courtesy Superior View Mining Economy 4 Minnesota Yet those booms came and went, with the mines often leaving What should be changed? a legacy of pollution and impairment of the region’s other What is holding us back? Defend Public Lands for Hunting, Fishing and Who’s Green? ...... 14 natural resources – clean water and healthy forests, as well as quality public lands to hunt, fish and spend good time on. Mining is an important part Future Generations ...... 6 This Land Is Your Land, Or Is This PolyMet’s Land? ...... 15 of the cultural heritage of the What is But the concern with mining is not only one of maintaining Great Lakes region. Yet, a Freshwater, Mining’s Most Common Casualty 8 Michigan a clean environment and sound public health. Most former focus on historic mining often Headwaters News? mining regions in the United States and Canada remain leaves the impression that Mining Companies Shake Their Moneymakers 10 Native American Rights Amidst Rio Tinto’s Proposed Eagle Mine 16 chronically depressed areas economically. This negative our ancestor’s most important Headwaters News is a new citizen-based media project long-term economic impact to our communities is an issue as contribution to society was focusing on environmental, public health and economic Protecting the Menominee River 17 critical to any discussion of the region’s future as other mining- digging holes in the ground concerns in the water-rich region from Minnesota to related concerns. and crawling through damp, eastern Ontario. A Letter to Hunters, Fishermen, and Landowners of the Upper Peninsula 17 dangerous spaces in rickety Editors: Jobs have been rapidly declining in the mining industry and underground mines. This special issue was published with the help of small, Teresa Bertossi, Gabriel Caplett Ontario the US Department of Labor expects a loss of roughly 100,000 but very generous donations, and hundreds of volunteer mining jobs between 2008 and 2018. At the same time, ore Truly, our most important hours from dozens of people – your neighbors. Copy Editors: Ontario Gets a New Mining Act ...... 18 production and export continue to rise, along with corporate heritage is tied to our love of Barbara Bradley, Catherine Parker profits. The few jobs that are left are typically well paying – this beautiful land, its rivers, We hope that you will join in this regional discussion. A Legacy of Waste – Uranium Mining in the Serpent River Watershed 19 higher than the private industry average – if you can get one. lakes and forests. Decades of Graphic Design: The mining industry continues to further automate mines, efforts by ordinary citizens to For more information, please visit our website at Gabriel Amadeus Tiller Wisconsin which tends to make mining safer, but at the cost of requiring conserve this cultural bounty HeadwatersNews.net far fewer workers than in the past. Unfortunately, these trends have kept the region unique Contributors: Failed Promises at the Flambeau Mine ...... 20 do not suggest long-term economic stability for communities from many other areas with If you are interested in submitting photos, video or Lori Andresen, Jack Deo, Laura Furtman, Al Gedicks, dependent upon mining employment. its abundance of quality written content, please contact us at (906) 361-0413 or Ramsey Hart, Ron and Carol Henriksen, IEN, Jessica The Crandon Mine Battle (1975-2003) ...... 21 public lands for hunting, [email protected] Koski, Bill Krupinski, Liana Loonsfoot, Sherry Loonsfoot, As evidenced by this economic reality, this is a complex fishing, camping and other Zachery Luhellier, Jon Magnuson, Elanne Palcich, Alexis Exhibit issue – one that cannot be divided into two starkly opposite recreation. It is this heritage Headwaters News relies on donations from generous Raney, Lorraine Rekmans, Greg Seitz, Richard Sloat, Bob and competing sides with any honesty. There are no definite that miners of decades past readers to help us continue this media project. Please Tammen, Rico Torreano, Marla Tuinstra, WMAN The Hard Facts on Hardrock and Uranium Mining ...... 22 answers in the mining, lands and water debate or concrete lived and worked for and send donations to: Headwaters News, PO Box 833, solutions as to what the future of this region should be. ensured would be left for their Marquette, MI 49855 The Last Word Solutions should come as the result of an ongoing, open and children. It is this part of our Cover photo: Courtesy Jack Deo, Superior View respectful discussion among citizens of the Great Lakes region. heritage that makes the future This Page: Rock River Falls, MI; Photo courtesy Gabriel Caplett Human Rights, Rio Tinto and the Integrity of Protest ...... 23 To make that discussion productive, we must first recognize of this region worth fighting where we are in order to better determine where we will go for.

Editor’s Note 3 View of Minnesota’s Iron Range; Photo courtesy Lori Waking Up to the Realities Andresen of a Mining Economy By Bob Tammen

In 1969 I went to work for In Minnesota and elsewhere sales to China by nearly ten American worker. From of mining are fairly well Promoters claim we should US Steel at their Minntac around the upper Great times from 2000 to 2006. In 2001 to 2007, before the documented and pretty much mine copper here so we don’t plant, in Minnesota. On a Lakes, many of our leaders 2008, when asked what other current recession, US trade ignored by regulators in mine it in some foreign large sign at the main gate, have said that we need to rapidly growing primary with China cost roughly mining country. country with lower standards, Minntac advertises itself as mine low-grade ore bodies markets the company saw, in 2.3 million, mostly yet they never identify a the largest taconite mining so we can use the minerals addition to China, CEO Tom manufacturing, America Minnesota has a sweetheart polluting mine that will be operation in North America. for manufacturing. The Albanese said, “China, China workers their jobs. This trend arrangement with the mining closed down if we open up a The main street of Mountain problem is, they’re so focused – and then again, I would say, is expected to continue. industry whereby they create mine in our wetlands. That’s Iron begins just a half-mile on extracting minerals that China.” “Voluntary Investigation because we won’t actually from the main gate. During they have no energy for According to the Natural And Cleanup” agreements. replace a polluting mine my bachelor days I rented an promoting manufacturing. The US has rapidly increased Resources Research Institute, You don’t have to be a someplace else. We’d just be apartment on the main street We have an educated work exports of raw materials “There are real opportunities hardened cynic to suspect competing with them in a of Mountain Iron. There was a force and a strong work such as food crops, metals for Minnesota to be a supplier that voluntary activities in race to the bottom. grocery store next door and a ethic. So why don’t we have the mining industry will lead bar across the street. Life was a manufacturing industry? us to the same wonderful New copper mining would be Listening to a mining company representative brag the economy and the good. It’s because our culture is outcomes we got from a wetland killer and an energy environment, we don’t often dominated by the extraction According to economist Thomas M. Power, “some citizens voluntary regulation in the pig. It’s capital intensive and about their contributions to our economy is like address the culture of an Last winter Pat and I went to mindset that keeps leading and leaders” in Minnesota’s Iron Range are stuck with the financial industry. job stingy. There’s nothing established mining area. If a meeting in Mountain Iron. us to dead-end development belief that mining is essential to the regional economy, radical about opposing new listening to a rooster on a dunghill crow until he makes you want to know what a We drove past the main gate projects. even though mining jobs contribute to only five percent In the upper Great Lakes we copper mining in wetlands mining economy looks like, of Minntac and into town. of personal income on the Iron Range and a scant two- have leaking tailings ponds, around the Great Lakes. the sun rise. don’t just picture ugly waste The bar is still there but the The proposed PolyMet tenths of one percent for the state: blowing dust, polluted surface dumps, polluted tailings grocery store is gone. Life is NorthMet copper-sulfide water, polluted ground water, Bob Tammen is a veteran of Vietnam, the The economic theory of the “resource curse” documents the ponds and huge pits. Picture still good for me but the main mine is a good example of “This belief in the importance of metal mining [to and a mining company sense mining industry, and several battles to fact that economies dependent on natural resource exploitation grass growing under the street of Mountain Iron isn’t the development dead end of entitlement that is outright save wetlands. He and his wife, Pat, live generally grow at a slower rate than economies that rely only playground swings. doing so well. we’re facing. We’ve heard the economy] is partially tied to the historical role shameless. between the Boundary Waters and Lake upon the creative abilities of their citizens. Just look at mining politicians say we need copper Superior. They are dedicated to protecting regions in the coalfields of Appalachia, the Ozarks lead district, Thirty-five years ago I worked When I went to work at to make wind turbines in that industry played in the European settlement of Pat and I live in Soudan, both. Idaho’s Silver Valley, Arizona and Montana’s copper towns, on an upgrade at the Empire Minntac, mining productivity Minnesota but there are no Minnesota, an old mining New Mexico’s uranium district, mine in Michigan’s Upper was approximately 6,000 proposals on the table for northeastern Minnesota. But economic history is town. When the mine was Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Peninsula. I stayed in the tons per employee per wind turbine factories on the closed down in the 1960’s iron and copper ranges and town of Palmer, which was year. Now each employee Iron Range. not usually a good guide to the economic present it was converted to a state If you want to know what a mining economy looks Minnesota’s own Iron Range just across the highway. Last averages 13,000 tons per park. We both love to take for examples. year my wife, Pat, and I year. Productivity more than As a matter of fact, or future. Trying to explain current day Pittsburgh, our company for a tour of the like, don't just picture ugly waste dumps, polluted returned for a visit. The mine doubled in my working PolyMet has already signed underground mine when we This generation of mining no was still operating but when lifetime. Now, it only takes a marketing agreement Chicago, Denver, or Portland, for instance, in get visitors. Unfortunately, tailings ponds and huge pits. Picture grass longer creates enough jobs to we drove past the school we half as many employees to with Glencore, a Swiss our mine is still polluting. maintain healthy schools and saw grass growing under the ship the same amount of ore. commodities trader. Our terms of steel, meat packing, ranching, or timber, The water that’s pumped out growing under the playground swings. vibrant main streets over the playground swings. copper is likely to be used to of the mine contains elevated long-term. Any short term We have living memory make wind turbines in China respectively, would not be very useful.” levels of copper, cobalt, and gain from a construction boom I struck up a conversation of a time when mining long before we have a factory mercury. in mining is soon offset by with a miner leaving the city was manpower intensive in northern Minnesota. the realities of a modern mining economy. The realities are offices across the street and and families were large. If a relatively innocuous expensive environmental clean up and long-term declines in he said they weren’t able to Automation and family Much of the metal demand and lumber over the past of raw materials to China underground iron mine is employment. keep their school open even planning have changed much, now is coming from China. nine years while importing in both the ferrous and still polluting over forty years with an operating taconite yet our society can’t accept Rio Tinto, a company trying higher-end products, such nonferrous areas.” after closure, what should we There’s no denying that the discussion over the benefits and plant next door. This story the fact that mining can no to mine in Michigan’s Upper as electronics and other expect from a copper mine in hazards of a mining economy gets pretty intense. A serious isn’t unique to the Michigan longer serve as a foundation Peninsula and Aitkin County, manufactured goods, with To make matters worse, the an acid-producing sulfide ore problem in mining country is that during the debate about mining district. for healthy communities. Minnesota, increased its disastrous effects for the environmental consequences body?

4 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Feature Article 5 Preparing for an October river hunt; Photo courtesy Richard Defend Public Lands for Hunting, Sloat Fishing and Future Generations By Richard Sloat man and his much younger from my dad—maybe Considering the poor track companion moving off into that’s why I enjoy hunting record of hardrock mining, the distance, I began to think. and canoeing so much, it doesn’t make sense to We share a hunting bond, we remembering my youth with leave the health of our share the land. my dad, his stories and the public land and water in stories he told me about my the hands of foreign mining My father and I enjoyed grandfather and his outdoor corporations. So, a group of hunting public lands. Because excursions. us in Iron River sponsored a my dad was a miner, swing “Mining Heritage Forum” shifts made it difficult to We did not have access at our library featuring local make time on the weekends to private land or a camp, historians who presented for recreation, but I happily depending on public land a history of our mining skipped school in order to go as our only means to hunt, heritage in the community. hunting. One October day fish, camp, hike and canoe. We invited speakers who we left town with the 17-foot I continue to live in the promote hardrock mining and Grumman canoe strapped to Upper Peninsula of Michigan those who oppose it in order the roof of the car, our second because of the many acres of to inform the citizens what A successful hunt; Photo car, the one my dad took to accessible public land. Today this new era of mining might Kennecott Exploration mining in Canada and the US. courtesy Richard Sloat work, the one a person really that access is threatened. mean for our community’s Company, a subsidiary Development of these areas didn’t want to be riding in future. of Rio Tinto, withdrew would be disastrous for the if the gravel road was dusty. I recently discovered that its permit application to water, land and wildlife. We headed out to try our foreign hardrock mining Shortly after, we heard that explore along Perch Lake. I luck at duck hunting on the companies are laying claim exploration companies were attribute the withdrawal to We have a daunting task Perch River, in Iron County, to public lands. Raised in an applying for permits to the many letters opposing before us. Our pleas to Michigan. It started to snow iron ore mining community, explore for precious metals Kennecott’s exploration plans government agencies huge flakes about the size Iron River, Michigan, and in the Ottawa National and skepticism from Bates responsible for protecting times through the forest and a of 50-cent pieces. Traveling a third generation miner Forest. Six permit areas were Township about hardrock our public lands are falling Opening day 2009, a spike horn buck came from person can hear a squirrel one down the gravel Forest Service myself, I was aware of the requested, totaling 2,155 mining exploration. on deaf ears. Today’s mining hundred feet away under the road we entered a sweeping problems of past mining. acres. The area affecting Iron would limit our land use, behind me. The hunt started about half an hour before same conditions. curve and happened upon When I was a kid, the river County was, coincidently, In Michigan the Yellow Dog poison much of the land two mature Bald Eagles. In winding through town the Bates Parcel, a tract of Plains, Ottawa National and water, and leave future it would be light enough to fire off a round. Cradled On day four I decided to hunt the early 1970s it was rare was known as the “Red land consisting of 395 acres Forest and the Shakey Lakes generations questioning our the perimeter of the clear-cut. to witness eagles due to the River” due to the color of encompassing the Perch Savanna in the Escanaba decisions. in my arm was my Remington 35 caliber pump with I had situated myself on a heavy use of pesticides. the water created from the River—the same Perch River State Forest are hill when a crack from a stick mine discharge. The red is River I mentioned earlier, a currently being considered A very wise man once told peep sites. The temperature was below freezing, but behind me heightened my Launching the canoe, we gone but the leakage from tributary to Lake Superior for mining operations. The me, “It was said many years senses. This time, without headed upstream with my abandoned mines and the acid where my dad and I went Upper Peninsula is not a ago a time would come when no snow covered the ground, only crunchy leaves, and I hesitation, I turned poised dad paddling and me in drainage from the tailings duck hunting. unique situation. Public many peoples would gather ready to aim and fire, but the bow with the Mossberg piles along the river continue lands throughout the Great to protect mother earth”. I still had feeling in my toes and fingers. a small amount of hunter’s 20-gauge. The river was to contaminate the water. I Our group organized a Lakes are being explored, believe that time has arrived. orange, two hundred feet thirty feet wide, choked with assumed problems like these letter writing campaign. such as the Superior National We need to act now with one The red squirrels were active, and in the distance I could hear away, flashed through the tag alders on both sides. would have been addressed Through our efforts over Forest in Minnesota. Areas voice. Defend our public land! the jungle-like calls of Pileated Woodpeckers as black capped balsam branches. At first Rounding a bend in the river, and corrected using modern fifty letters were written of potential concern from Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches gathered in the I was upset as great effort three mallards leaped into mining methods. Despite opposing exploration on the mining and exploration in Richard Sloat is a life-long resident of the branches of the young maples and popples that surrounded was taken to get to this spot the air from a little cove. Two advances in technology, the Bates Parcel. Bates Township Canada include the Lake Upper Peninsula, living in Iron County me. I didn’t hear the buck coming over the hill forty feet away. without detection and now shots, three mallards down. mining industry has been officials received numerous Superior Provincial Park and the majority of his life. He loves the Moving at a rapid pace, the deer passed within twenty feet—I possibly every deer within a “Good shooting!” my dad using relatively the same documents detailing the the Pukaskwa National Park outdoors. Canoeing the Paint River is his was unknowingly on its rub line. Being caught by surprise and square mile had heard that shouted with excitement. practices for well over thirty hazards of hardrock mining, in Ontario. Native American favorite past time, especially running the out of good shooting position, the spike horn continued along same crack of the stick. But Compliments and recognition years. elevating their concerns. and First Nation lands are Hemlock Rapids in high water. its path. It still mystifies me how deer can move so silently at as I glimpsed a gray haired were few and far between Months later, I learned the also being considered for

6 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Feature Article 7 Children playing in the Yellow Dog River, Michigan; Menominee River, Michigan; Photo courtesy Alexis Raney Photo courtesy Ron and Carol Freshwater: Mining’s Henriksen Most Common Casualty By Teresa Bertossi We all have our own individual childhood stories and The Clinton and Bush Tailings disposal in water As evidenced by the Reserve relationships with the water, but we share a common administrations helped to bodies comes with many case, mining activities can responsibility to protect it. And that’s no easy challenge. make lake filling possible by risks, as evidenced by the impair freshwater even redefining the definition of contamination of Lake in the largest of lakes. Over the last thirty years we have certainly made progress in “fill” material and weakening Superior by the Reserve Sadly, according to the cleaning up America’s waters—it has been a while since one of the Clean Water Act. The Mining Company between Environmental Mining them caught fire—but according to American Rivers, almost change allows mining 1955 and the 1970s. Council of British Columbia 40% of the rivers and streams in the US are too polluted for companies to dispose of their Despite outcry from local (EMC), water is “mining’s fishing and swimming and more than 50% of wetlands have wastes in natural water bodies sportsmen, fishermen, labor most common casualty.” This been lost in the past century. throughout the US. representatives, and a public is partly due to the fact that health officer the company it can be difficult to pinpoint Already, contaminated fish advisories have become a part of For example, a recent US was granted a permit, and the the source of contaminated our daily lives. In the past century nearly 20% of all freshwater Supreme Court decision finely ground waste product drainage from a mine. fish have vanished. Today, according to Learning Disabilities allowed the Coeur d’Alene was dumped into Lake Worldwide, the recommended weekly allowance for fish Mines Corporation to dump Superior, along with over And mining and metals consumption is about one meal (six ounces) for adults and two waste in the Lower Slate Lake, 50,000 pounds of chemicals processing is considered one and readily absorbed by the Minnesota, Michigan and ounces for children. near Juneau, Alaska, even per day. of the world’s worst pollution stomach. Ontario. though doing so would kill problems (Blacksmith Consider a recent US Geological Survey study that found all aquatic life in the lake. The pollution contaminated Institute, 2006). Often, And in the case of uranium The Great Lakes is a fragile mercury contamination in every fish sampled in 291 streams Lake Superior for thirty-five modern mining requires mining, processing and ecosystem vulnerable to There are bobbers and there are sinkers. My parents across the country, between 1998 and 2005, including waters The weakening of the Clean miles from Reserve’s plant, a greater dependence on exploration, radioactive dust degradation. When we are of the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. Water Act is also responsible turning lake water green and technology to control or particles can spread through considering a new mining were sinkers. They couldn’t swim, and they never for stream filling as a result of killing fish. The pollution contain the chemicals air and water. Exposure to district near 20% of the Mercury contamination has also affected the Common Loon. “mountain top removal” coal continued to spread, covering produced or used during radioactive elements from world’s freshwater, there is taught us to swim. This water-loving creature has survived on our planet for 65 mining in the Appalachian 2,000 square miles of the mining and processing. drinking water, food supplies, little room for accidents. million years, and is now considered “threatened” or a “species region of the US. A similar bottom of the lake. In 1977 Human error, improper or or radon gas can cause cancer of special concern” in parts of the US. situation, in 2002, led to a the people of Duluth, Two malfunctioning equipment, and numerous reproductive If we protect our water, this change to Canada’s Fisheries Harbors, Beaver and Silver and natural hazards can result problems. region has the potential If the loss and contamination of one of our most primitive Act, allowing water bodies in Bay were forced to foot the in accidents, fires, spills, or to specialize in world- My father’s most comfortable relationship to the water was birds and our freshwater fish isn’t cause for concern, what is? Canada to be used as “tailings bill for water filtration plants landslides, causing sudden When sulfides are removed leading water technology drinking a beer and a little fishing here and there, and my impoundment facilities” to remove contaminants from increases in contaminants in from the ground and exposed and conservation jobs (from mother’s idea of swimming was rolling her jeans up to her But, water pollution isn’t our only problem. In many parts of (waste dumps) for the mining the public water supply. air and water supplies and to air and water a chemical construction to landscaping knees. So, it might be difficult to understand how someone the world freshwater is hard to come by. Water resources are industry. increased exposure to humans reaction can create sulfuric and engineering), eventually from a family of sinkers learned to appreciate freshwater so running dry. Although developing nations bear the brunt of and wildlife. acid which can introduce helping other communities much. water shortages, in 2003 water managers from thirty-six states heavy metals to waterways so they won’t have to divert said they expect water shortages over the next ten years. Some examples of the most and be harmful to humans Great Lakes’ water to survive. Growing up, freshwater meant more than swimming or risky mining ventures are and aquatic life. drinking. It was a way of life; from catching my first fish, Currently in the Midwest, officials and citizens of Waukesha, the mining of uranium and We need brave citizens watching water bugs, and looking for crayfish, to hygiene and Wisconsin, and Lake County, Illinois are eyeing the Great gold, as well as the mining of Now, due to rich geologic around the world to stand up sanitation. Water provided us with clean elbows (spit counts), Lakes as a solution to insufficient or contaminated drinking minerals found in sulfide ore formations and a high to protect the water—it is a clean clothes, and most of the time, a sewage system. Access to water supplies. bodies. demand for metals, the difficult task, and it’s going to water also meant affordable food grown right in our backyard. Great Lakes region is take everything we have hook, And, during the toughest times, water provided us with It may sound crazy, but while water-hungry communities are In gold mining, cyanide facing a potential metallic line, and yes, even sinkers. strength and healing—the trickling of a creek or the way light turning to the Great Lakes as a solution to water scarcity, the is often poured on piles sulfide and uranium mining reflects and dances with your soul on the bottom of a river or US and Canada are allowing water bodies to be used as tailings of rock to extract gold. boom. Mineral exploration Teresa Bertossi lives in Michigan’s Upper lake. waste dumps for the mining industry. According to the World companies are actively Peninsula. Her concerns with hardrock/ Health Organization, cyanide pursuing mineral leases near uranium mining in the Great Lakes stem Autumn sunset on Lake Michigan; Photo courtesy Alexis Raney is highly toxic to humans Lake Michigan and around from her family’s hardships due to their Lake Superior throughout coal mining heritage.

8 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Feature Article 9 Photo courtesy Flickr/Creative An overwhelming majority of Michigan Mining Companies Shake Commons by BlankBlankBlank “We simply don’t DEQ employees did not trust top 19% agency management to protect Their Moneymakers have the kind of Michigan’s resources and public By Gabriel Caplett health. funding we need 81% with the Department of operations. If Harding was In October to adequately could collapse. sulfide mining law Natural Resources (DNR) successful, his efforts would 2004, Harding, The state’s own requiring that a mine offers a clear example of a have increased the amount of working for the implement the commissioned application has to state agency that has been allowable dioxin in residential Dow-funded expert, Dr. establish that the proposed 45% ample in its generosity toward and industrial areas to levels Mackinaw laws we’re David Sainsbury, mining operation “reasonably 55% helping industry get projects more than ten times above Center for Public said that minimize[s] actual or More than half of employees approved - the law, sound public health standards. Policy, wrote required to Rio Tinto’s potential adverse impacts on thought the Michigan DEQ science and public opinion be Dioxin, highly toxic in even that the cost of mine plan is air, water and other natural does not disseminate complete and damned. minute doses, damages the cleanup for Dow implement.” “technically resources.” accurate information to the public. nervous and reproductive “would be a antiquated, A 2001 open records request systems, child and fetal huge expense for - Michigan DEQ Director sloppy and On June 19, 2008, shortly With new mining activity in Minnesota and Michigan the biggest supporters revealed that former DEQ development and causes them for what Steven Chester equivalent to before 6 p.m., when asked Trust Issues at the Michigan DEQ Director Russ Harding cancer. they think is not high school level if either he or his mine of projects such as PolyMet’s NorthMet and Rio Tinto’s Eagle Project are, not suppressed an internal money well- work,” that Rio team followed that law in Corruption and negligence has certainly had an effect on morale at the Michigan state health assessment In 2007, the highest level of spent.” Tinto’s methodology does recommending approval of Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) (now part of the Department of surprisingly, state politicians. recommending immediate dioxin ever reported to the “not reflect industry best the project, Maki said, “I did Natural Resources and Environment). According to a survey by Public Employees action to clean up extensive Environmental Protection Harding is not alone in his practice” and the company’s not, no,” and “I don’t believe for Environmental Responsibility – 609 of 1,462 DEQ employees (41.6%) While most Americans, charged with enforcing it. In In Michigan, the Department dioxin contamination Agency was found in the river disregard for the public’s conclusions regarding the so, no.” responded to the survey - 81% of DEQ employees said that they “did not trust top according to a recent poll, November 2008 Michigan of Environmental Quality around Dow Chemical’s adjacent to Saginaw’s Wickes health. Steven Chester, before mine’s stability “are not agency management to protect Michigan’s resources and public health.” 55% of consider politics to be the Governor Jennifer Granholm’s (DEQ) – recently recombined lower Michigan chemical Park. succeeding Harding as DEQ considered to be defensible.” Undeterred by all the respondents either “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” that “the DEQ disseminates least trustworthy profession, representative for the Upper head, worked for a law firm The DEQ did not include problems, state politicians, complete and accurate agency information to the general public. it has been elected officials Peninsula, Matt Johnson, representing Dow Chemical. Sainsbury’s reports in the such as Senator Mike Prusi, that have come to the mining resigned from his post to An August 2007 confidential public record and dropped Governor Granholm and US Environmental Protection only 11.2% of these known industry’s rescue, readily take a job as “manager of memo obtained from the US his references comparing the DEQ brass continue to insist Agency recently gave that violations are enforced with using the bully pulpit to governmental and community Environmental Protection nearby collapsed Athens Mine everything is above board same review the lowest rating fines or “significant” penalties. corporate advantage. relations” for Rio Tinto, a Agency contains a scathing to Rio’s proposed mine. in the DEQ’s handling of possible - “environmentally In Minnesota, nearly 40% company under review by criticism of both Governor Rio Tinto’s Eagle Mine. unsatisfactory-inadequate” of regulated facilities violate This was starkly evident at a Granholm’s administration. Jennifer Granholm and Steven In 2007, before being In a February 2009 op-ed, - and said the mine would that law, while only 12.4% December Minnesota public Chester, expressing concern transferred to work overseas Prusi went so far as to claim pollute ground and surface of known violations are hearing on PolyMet’s project. In 2007 Franconia Minerals that the DEQ and Michigan Sainsbury e-mailed Rio that Rio Tinto “has met waters of national importance, punished. The state changed protocol hired former Director of the politicians tried to weaken Tinto’s subsidiary, Kennecott, Michigan’s strict mining and fail to control acid mine at the hearing and the public Minnesota Department of Michigan law and delay because he was “concerned environmental protection drainage, destroy 1,000 acres Although there are a number was only able to comment in Natural Resources’ Division clean-up in an effort to reduce that there was no one with laws.” of “high-quality” wetlands of honest and knowledgable written format or, privately, of Lands & Minerals, William potential future liability for any rock mechanics expertise and dump mercury into Lake employees working in with a stenographer. The only Brice, as the company’s Dow. on the Kennecott side.” Minnesota politicians tell Superior. environmental state agencies, three speakers allowed? Three Director of Government When asked if anyone similar tales. In February, corruption and mediocrity Iron Range politicians who & Community Relations. This careless attitude toward at the company took any State Representative Tom Unfortunately, these are not appear to be the standard gave strong and unequivocal Brad Moore, recently protecting the environment, action regarding his request, Rukavina said PolyMet’s isolated cases but evidence of in Minnesota and Michigan endorsements of PolyMet’s the commissioner of the wildlife and the public’s Sainsbury said, “I believe they project would be “the most a chronic lack of concern by for agencies and politicians plans. Minnesota Pollution Control health in Michigan has didn’t.” environmentally sound copper regulators and politicians in charged with protecting Agency (MPCA), now works readily extended into behavior nickel mine, I think, in the region. According to an wildlife, water quality, long- Companies trying to mine for Barr Engineering, a surrounding the state’s review In court, Joe Maki, a the world.” US Senators Al expose by the New York Times, term economic sustainability in northeast Minnesota Minneapolis-based consulting and approval of Rio Tinto’s geologist with the DEQ’s Franken and Amy Klobuchar, most violations of the federal and the public’s health from and Michigan’s Upper firm working with PolyMet, proposed Eagle Mine. Office of Geological Survey as well as US Representative Clean Water Act, which are potentially dangerous sulfide Peninsula are benefiting while Ann Glumac, former and “application review Jim Oberstar have described dramatically rising, occur mining projects. from a revolving door deputy MPCA commissioner, Charges have been made by coordinator” for Rio Tinto’s the environmental review without penalty. Shockingly, relationship between the is assisting PolyMet as a well-respected mining expert Eagle Project, said his agency for the project as “diligent,” while 60% of regulated Gabriel Caplett is a freelance writer and mining industry and the consultant. Jack Parker that the mine, did not consider a central “responsible,” and facilities in Michigan have lifelong resident of Michigan’s Upper state agencies and officials Adapted from the Flambeau Funnies as designed, is not safe and tenet of Michigan’s current “innovative.” Meanwhile, the violated the Clean Water Act, Peninsula.

10 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Feature Article 11 Legend Mining Employment by the Numbers Public Lands Indigenous Reserves United States Canada Active Metal Mines “Employment in mining is projected to decrease. The growing U.S. and world economies will continue • From 2000 to 2008 mining industry employment The designations and representations on this to demand larger quantities of the raw materials produced by mining, but the increased output will declined by 12.3% while output increased by 4.6%. map are believed to be accurate at the time of be able to be met by new technologies and new extraction techniques that increase productivity and production. Project and exploration areas are approximate and subject to change. require fewer workers.” – US Department of Labor: • Mining and mineral processing employment fell 2.3% in 2008 to 351,000 workers – 2.4% of Canada’s labor • In 2008 there were an estimated 717,000 mining industry jobs and 327,700 “support” force. jobs, comprising roughly 0.8% of the nation’s workforce. • Mining and quarrying employs 58,000 workers. • 39,900, or roughly 1 out of every 3,300 workers, are metal miners. • From 1991 to 2008, the metal mining industry lost • The mining industry is expected to lose roughly 104,000 jobs between 2008 and 2018. over 9,000 workers, or roughly 25% of the workforce.

• Mining industry workers make $23.01/hour, compared to $18.08/hour for the private • From March 2007 to March 2009 metal industry average. manufacturing employment fell by almost 25%; weekly earnings fell by 2.2% to $1,181 – still higher • In 2009 less than two-tenths of 1% of Michigan’s economy directly employed workers than the national average of $810. in “Natural Resources and Mining” (mining, logging, fishing and some agriculture). The only listed sector providing fewer jobs was “Rail Transportation.” • There are 8,212 metal miners in Ontario.

• 1 in roughly 540 Minnesota workers and 1 in roughly 920 Wisconsin workers is Source: Natural Resources Canada employed in the mining or logging industries. Great Lakes Mining Map Sources: Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth; United States Department of Labor

1 Big Trout Lake, denied Kennecott, a Superior, including PolyMet, against the company and 27 years several mining Ontario, is home to subsidiary of Rio Tinto, Duluth Metals and Franconia. the Department of Natural companies tried to open the 7 Kennecott’s (Rio Tinto) of Lake Michigan, and is miners died from diseases the Kitchenuhmaykoosib a permit to explore for PolyMet, the furthest along, Resources in 2009. mine, located on the ceded nickel and copper sulfide vigorously opposed by local acquired while working in the Inninuwug First Nation metal deposits. In 2007 the can’t legally open its planned territorial lands of the Mole Eagle project is located citizens. Aquila plans to use uranium mines. (KI). KI has used civil Minnesota Court of Appeals open pit mine unless the 5 Close to the Presque Lake Chippewa. By 2003 underneath the Salmon cyanide, banned in many disobedience tactics to stop ruled in the company’s favor, federal government sells Isle River, the shoreline plans to open the mine were Trout River, a prized trout parts of the world, to extract 10 In 2008 members of Platinex from exploring for reasoning that county officials roughly 6,700 acres of the of Lake Superior and just permanently defeated. stream and tributary of Lake the gold. the Ardoch and Shabot platinum on their lands. In were too “heavily influenced Superior National Forest to west of Porcupine Mountain Superior. Kennecott plans to Obaadjiwan First Nations December of 2009 Platinex by public opposition” and them. Wilderness State Park, (b) Tamerlane Ventures is use Eagle Rock, sacred to area 9 The Serpent River, which blocked Frontenac Ventures dropped lawsuits against KI that Kennecott’s activities Orvana has been drilling exploring the possibility of Native Americans, for the drains into Lake Huron’s from exploring for uranium. and surrendered its mining were “in the public interest Kennecott’s (Rio Tinto) for copper and silver at its mining the “Lynne” zinc proposed mine’s entrance. Georgian Bay, was severely Tribal leaders were fined and claims. and necessary to public 4 controversial Flambeau Copperwood project. Orvana and lead deposit in Oneida contaminated with radioactive jailed, eventually creating an welfare.” Mine, an open pit copper and plans to open the mine by County, Wisconsin. The 8 HudBay Minerals and wastes from over a dozen embarrassing situation for the 2 Kennecott’s Tamarack gold sulfide mine, opened in 2013. project was previously Aquila Resources are uranium mines operating in Ontario government nickel and copper 3 Several Canadian 1991, closing only six years dropped after intense citizen trying to open the gold and Elliot Lake from the 1950s project is located in Aitkin companies are planning later. Ongoing pollution (a) In 1975 Exxon opposition and the passage zinc sulfide Back 40 project. until 1996. The pollution County, Minnesota. In 2006 hardrock mining projects that breaks federal and state 6 discovered a large copper of a state “moratorium” The project is located on caused serious health Kennecott sued when the between the Boundary water quality laws prompted and zinc sulfide deposit near on hardrock mining in the the banks of the Menominee problems at the Serpent River county’s planning commission Waters Wilderness and Lake citizens to pursue legal action Crandon, Wisconsin. For 1990s. River, a major tributary First Nation. More than 230 Cartoon by Bill Krupinski

12 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Maps, Data, & Hard Facts 13 Canoeing in the Boundary Franconia Minerals’ Drilling Waters; Photo courtesy Greg Barge on Birch Lake; Photo Seitz, Friends of the Boundary courtesy Bob Tammen Waters Wilderness Weeks Act Protects Public Land

The Weeks Act of 1911, named after Massachusetts Rep. John Weeks, authorized the purchase of land by of energy to mine 99% waste of a renewable energy future. The deceptively named the federal government for the protection of watersheds. rock. If we are truly in a time But PolyMet’s ore body is so “Superior National Forest The land was to be held as National Forest land. Strip Who’s Green? of decreasing supplies of oil low grade, what contribution Land Adjustment Act” would mining is not allowed on Weeks Act lands, therefore By Elanne Palcich and increasing energy costs, would these metals have remove long-standing federal PolyMet would need special legislation removing current Move over environmentalists. Here how green and sustainable is toward America’s renewable environmental protections environmental protections in order to open a strip mine this? future? Does it even make and allow PolyMet to directly on this public land. comes PolyMet, your “next generation of sense to build a future that own and strip mine 6,700 PolyMet claims that its replaces oil and coal with a acres of federal Superior For nearly a hundred years, the courts have refined and environmentally responsible mining.” But “autoclave/hydromet” metal dependency on mining rare National Forest public lands. reaffirmed the authority of the Weeks Act to protect processing method is “next and low-grade metals? This Land Is Your Land, (see sidebar) watersheds and forests from strip mining. let’s dig a little deeper. generation” technology that will prevent pollution. This Our highest quality ores have More than a dozen other National Forests were created for multiple uses, such as process was designed to already been mined. Now we Or Is This PolyMet’s Land? mining companies are in the recreation, hunting and fishing, timber management and By Lori Andresen extract low-grade ores, not must learn to live within our advanced stages of exploration watershed and ecosystem protection. to protect the environment. global resource limits. Do in areas across the state, PolyMet is a Canadian company seeking a permit to mine for northeast Minnesota’s waters The separation of metals from our demands for metals take including the very edges of Over half the mineral estate of the Superior National copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold in a less are high in mercury, which their ores by heat, chemicals, precedence over our need for Metallic sulfide mining, an exceptionally destructive the Boundary Waters. Mining Forest, which includes the Boundary Waters, is privately than 1% metallic sulfide ore body in northeast Minnesota. is released into the air as part and liquid leaching, clean water, clean air, and the giants, such as Rio Tinto held. PolyMet purchased the plant and tailings basin (where mined of the taconite pelletizing while releasing fewer air balance of nature? What steps type of mining, is in the advanced stages of the (Kennecott Minerals) and wastes are stored) of the bankrupt LTV Steel Mining Company process, and also from the coal contaminants than smelting, can we take within our own Teck-Cominco, are joined by a Congressman James Oberstar and U.S. Senator Amy from Cleveland Cliffs. The tailings are already leaching burning electric plants that creates instead a toxic residue lives that would allow us to permitting process in northeastern Minnesota. number of Canadian “junior” Klobuchar introduced legislation in 2007, in a sulfates into the watershed. Sulfates are part of a biochemical run the taconite operations. that is to be layered with live more comfortably with miners hoping to strike it rich direct attack against the Weeks Act’s environmental process that converts elemental mercury into methylmercury, If state agencies permit other mine wastes, eventually fewer resource demands? at the expense of Minnesota’s protections. The precedent setting “Superior National the form that contaminates fish. To make matters worse, PolyMet, they are permitting leaking into the ground Concerned citizens and State mining laws regulating real natural resource wealth Forest Land Adjustment Act” would force the sale of pollution on top of pollution. water. The United Nations defines conservation organizations anything other than iron – clean water and healthy 6,700 acres of Superior National Forest land to the sustainable development are closely following this mining have never been tested forests. Canadian company PolyMet for a strip mine. Quick Facts on the Boundary Waters Wilderness PolyMet’s catch phrase is that Metals from this process as that which “meets the emerging environmental and there is great concern that its mine is on a “brownfield” would require further needs of the present without and public health threat. No existing laws are woefully Alarmingly, Franconia 1. The most visited wilderness in the US, with more site and it is “re-using” the processing at some other compromising the ability of sulfide mine has ever before inadequate. Pro-mining Iron Minerals has been drilling for own chances of approval will tailings basin, to continue for than 250,000 visitors every year LTV plant. But PolyMet’s facility. According to a future generations to meet been permitted in the State Range legislators, along metals directly underneath be greatly increased. PolyMet years in violation of federal strip mine would lie within PolyMet consultant, inquiries their own needs.” PolyMet of Minnesota. However, in with politically appointed Birch Lake. Another company, optioned the shuttered LTV water pollution law. If current 2. Part of the Superior National Forest, which brings in 6,700 acres of the Superior from China make it likely fails this definition by removing overburden at regulatory agency officials Duluth Metals, is rapidly taconite processing plant from environmental oversight is $223 million, every year, to the State of Minnesota; National Forest, destroying that the semi-processed compromising water quality the Dunka taconite mine, and the governor’s office, are advancing their mining Cliffs Natural Resources for inadequate for enforcing the $30 million of that comes from the Boundary Waters or impacting 1,200 acres of metals could be shipped and eliminating tourism, a sulfide ore body was applying political pressure plans by drilling, leasing, cash and 7% ownership by iron mining industry, we can wetlands. In the late 1990s directly there. Dependent recreation, real estate, and unearthed and stockpiled. on the agencies tasked with and mapping ore bodies that Cliffs, and is now seeking reasonably expect potentially 3. Roughly 1.1 million acres with over 1,000 pristine the US Forest Service and upon PolyMet ‘s metal timber as future sources The sulfide-containing rocks the environmental review run next to the Kawishiwi permits for one-third of the catastrophic outcomes from lakes and streams; 1,500 miles of canoe routes, 11 the Minnesota Department purchasing agreement with of livelihood. How much at the Dunka site have been of PolyMet’s NorthMet River, which also flows plant’s 100,000 tons-per- any future sulfide mining hiking trails, and roughly 2,200 designated campsites of Natural Resources the Swiss company Glencore, would these low grade metals discharging heavy metals copper-sulfide project - the into the Boundary Waters. day capacity. It is expected projects. Documented cases identified this same area as all metals would be sold actually contribute to the into Birch Lake for decades. most advanced of Minnesota’s Duluth Metals has optioned that other mines would use of severe long-term sulfide 4. Contains some of the oldest rock on Earth, up to 2.7 habitat worthy of protection. on the global market. This world market? Birch Lake drains into the sulfide mine proposals to the adjacent Dunka property PolyMet’s excess processing mining disasters, in other billion years old PolyMet’s “green mine” refutes PolyMet’s claim that Boundary Waters Canoe Area date, and currently in the late from Cleveland Cliffs and capacity for their own ore, parts of the US and the world, would be turning this it would produce a domestic What is our standard for Wilderness. Despite attempts stages of permitting. hopes to use the site to dump greatly reducing project costs should raise a red warning flag 5. Federally-protected as a “wilderness area” in 1978 ecologically significant land source of metals, eliminate who’s “green”? to clean up the acid producing their mining wastes, adding and expediting the permit to all Minnesotans concerned into an open pit mine. overseas shipping and reduce and metal leaching sulfides at It is expected that US even more pollution to Birch process. about the environmental and America’s dependence on Elanne Palcich is a retired elementary the Dunka, a yearly variance Representative James Lake. These companies economic future of this state. Because the amount of metal foreign metals. school teacher who has spent her entire life from federal “Clean Water Oberstar and US Senator are following the PolyMet Minnesota agencies have in the ore body is so low on the Iron Range of Minnesota, and has Act” standards continues to Amy Klobuchar will re- environmental review process allowed ongoing pollution, Lori Andresen is a public lands advocate, grade, PolyMet would be Next, PolyMet claims that been closely following the PolyMet copper- be issued from the Minnesota introduce a special interest carefully, expecting that if at both the Dunka site and as well as a native Duluthian. using tremendous amounts its metals are needed as part nickel mining process since June of 2005. Pollution Control Agency. legislative bill for PolyMet. PolyMet moves forward their the former LTV plant and

14 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Minnesota 15 Sportsmen fishing on the Young Anishinabe Fancy Shawl Menominee River; Photo courtesy Dancer; Photo courtesy Zachery Teresa Bertossi Luhellier

its location within a delicate However, the four nation- A Letter to Hunters, Fishermen, and watershed, and underneath states that originally voted the Salmon Trout River which against the Declaration were Landowners of the Upper Peninsula By Rico Torreano flows into Lake Superior. the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, The sulfide mining controversy is being portrayed by mining interests as between In addition, a sacred place, although Australia recently themselves and “environmental activists.” This is a distraction to keep the rest of us Migi zii wa sin (Eagle Rock), signed in 2009. from noticing that we, too, have a stake in this. also lies at the heart of We are being asked to make a big sacrifice. Asked to give up our largest blocks of resistance, as the proposed Nevertheless, the Declaration Protecting the publicly accessible lands to development. Give up the Escanaba, Yellow Dog, and site of the Eagle Project’s is a landmark document Salmon Trout rivers to pollution. Give up real dollar value in our recreational properties, mine portal into the ore addressing the rights and self- Menominee River and pass down a diminished Upper Peninsula lifestyle to our children. body. Despite a lack of determination of indigenous By Marla Tuinstra recognition by corporate and peoples. It recognizes the The Front 40 citizens’ group distrust of what the state will We shouldn’t do it. Not for somebody in London who owns Rio Tinto stock. Not for their Native American Rights Amidst state development interests, rights of indigenous peoples is remaining faithful to its do for the local yokel, who has corporate executives. Not for the convenience of the politicians who want to solve their Ojibwa people have been to protect historical sites mission to alert the public to faithfully obeyed the law and budget problems at our expense. And not for the very few of us who might get a job at Rio Tinto’s Proposed Eagle Mine using this sacred place for and ceremonies, to revitalize the dangers of metallic sulfide paid their taxes, some for as the proposed Eagle Project, with its seven year lifespan. It’s too little for too few. By Jessica Koski hundreds of years. cultural traditions and mineral mining. long as 100 years in the area. All of our large tracts of public land are threatened. The block from Marquette to Skanee customs, to participate in would be severed by the Woodland Road. The block from Humboldt to Iron River is Unfortunately, the American decision-making processes The group formed in response Aquila recently joined forces under exploration. The Baraga Plains and Ottawa National Forest are being prospected for Indian Religious Freedom affecting their rights, and to exploration by Aquila with HudBay, a Canadian uranium. Around the world, many indigenous communities are grappling with pressures from Act of 1978 has not been to maintain and strengthen Resources at its “Back 40” mining company that, at best, Those of us who hunt, fish, or own camps or land in these tracts stand to lose the wild areas corporations wanting to develop resources within their homelands, with little regard for their strong enough to protect a spiritual relationship zinc-gold project along has a tarnished environmental we love. Want to see sheriff’s deputies in Wildcat Canyon? It’s coming. Fish advisories in aboriginal rights. Numerous case studies have highlighted indigenous resistance to mining and many sacred places in the with traditional territories the Menominee River, in reputation. Of additional Little Bay De Noc due to sulfide tailings in the Escanaba River system are a real possibility. other developments in countries around the world. United States and Native and waters and to uphold Menominee County. The concern is the statement by Americans are one of the obligations to future proposed mine is very near Aquila’s chairman that it The State of Michigan’s government, charged with doing the will of its citizens and Increasingly, local communities have positioned themselves to play a more prominent role in only people whose religious generations in this regard. the Shakey Lakes chain of is “likely” they would use protecting our waters, has found a way to do neither. Much like an outgoing president politics in order to assert their rights. However, despite a global movement for indigenous freedom is not guaranteed lakes and many streams cyanide in their operation. granting pardons to his cronies on his last day in office, the State has granted approval rights and a significant number of case studies on the impacts under the Constitution’s With increasing demand for in the area that could be to this project via an agency that no longer exists. They believe they have sidestepped of mining and other extractive industries on indigenous First Amendment. Yet, if minerals and other resources affected. Of great importance Our citizen group has visited responsibility. Pretty slick move. communities, there is little mainstream media attention In a time of cultural further destruction and loss to supply a global economy, in the area are sports such as all the township boards in Own a riverfront home on one of the affected rivers? How much value does it lose when bringing awareness to the issues. of Native American sacred proposed developments hunting, fishing, swimming, Menominee County that effluent that meets state standards is dumped upstream? Still want to serve your kids brook revitalization for Native places occurs, Native peoples will inevitably continue to boating and camping - really, were open to hearing our trout and eggs for breakfast? In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, proposed sulfide mining on stand to lose their heritage, encroach upon lands valued anything involved with the concerns and have noticed Do you hunt in an unaffected area? Those of us who get pushed out are moving there. the Yellow Dog Plains and increasing mineral exploration people, shouldn’t we religious beliefs and identity by indigenous and other local great outdoors stands to lose that the mining interests throughout the entire Lake Superior Basin is threatening as a people. In a time of communities. if a mine of this type becomes often tend to intimidate and They can label us “environmental activists” if they wish. But the truth is I’m Upper Ojibwa treaty rights to their ceded homelands. Under preserve the integrity cultural revitalization for a reality. scare officials, citizens and Peninsula born and raised. I’m trying to protect the place where I live. Foreign mining the Treaty of 1854, leaders of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Native people, shouldn’t we Let us stand strong together especially project opponents. companies want to exploit it, take almost all the money back to London, and leave me living Community and other Ojibwa bands ensured permanent of the last remaining preserve the integrity of the and proactively envision a Much of the property under We have been called all sorts in an Upper Peninsula that’s been diminished forever. I’m selfish. I want to keep it. How reservations along the shores of Lake Superior and throughout last remaining sacred places? sustainable future for our exploration at Aquila’s project of things. about you? the northern regions of present-day Michigan, Wisconsin and sacred places? beloved homelands and is leased from the state. It was Minnesota. They explicitly retained rights to hunt, fish and There is an increasing children. pointed out several months At this point, Front 40 gather on ceded lands. recognition of culture as a ago that the lease fee being is keeping the faith and Rico Torreano basic human right. This is Jessica Koski is a member of the Keweenaw paid by Aquila was one- appreciates any help that Negaunee, Michigan Although treaty rights may challenge state authority to manage and develop resources lying especially evident by the Bay Indian Community and an alumna of third or less per-acre of what can come our way. Rico Torreano is a lifelong Upper Peninsula resident. He fishes year round on the Great Lakes and on the inland lakes and streams. within their boundaries, the Ojibwa people continue to exercise their treaty rights and overwhelming ratification Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College taxpayers right next to the An owner of timber and recreational lands, he hunts on both public and private land. He and his wife, Hope, continue to enjoy their protect their homelands today. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community is opposed to any of the United Nations and Michigan Technological University. project were paying on similar Marla Tuinstra and her husband, free time at the camp they built on the Salmon Trout headwaters. mining activities on ceded ancestral lands until substantial evidence can satisfy their concerns Declaration on the Rights Currently, she is a graduate student at property. That fact alone is Norm, are retired dairy farmers and regarding environmental risks. There has never been a sulfide mine in a water-rich area that has of Indigenous Peoples Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental enough to make one’s blood have lived in the Daggett, Michigan not polluted the water. This makes the proposed Eagle Project especially controversial due to (September 13, 2007). Studies. boil and develop a distinct area all their lives.

16 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Michigan 17 Representatives from the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation address a rally in A Legacy of Waste: Toronto; Photo courtesy Teresa Bertossi Uranium Mining in the Serpent River Watershed The Act addresses concerns over the “Free Entry” system by By Lorraine Rekmans requiring companies to submit exploration plans and requests for exploration permits. The requirement for exploration Not many people realize that the north shore of Lake Huron permits was one of MiningWatch’s core demands for the should be an area of grave concern for those who rely on the new bill and we are pleased to see this included. It is not, fresh waters of the Great Lakes. In particular few pay attention however, at all clear what the permitting process will involve. to the Serpent River, which drains south into the North Some vague direction is provided but, as with Aboriginal Channel of Lake Huron. The Serpent River watershed was consultation, all the details are being left to the development home to sixteen uranium mines from the 1950s until 1996. of regulations. Many of these mines, which were located near Elliot Lake - in Concerns of private landowners whose property could be the traditional and treaty lands of the Serpent River First staked (a small percentage of private land in Ontario does not Nation - pre-date the Atomic Energy Control Board and the include the subsurface mineral rights) have been addressed by Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and were not subjected withdrawing lands in the southern part of the province and to licensing requirements or regulations. For decades mine giving landowners in the north the opportunity to request wastes were dumped untreated into the Serpent River. withdrawal. This definitely gives landowners some protection Elliot Lake uranium miners’ memorial; Photo courtesy Barbara Bradley but is not a permanent fix as the withdraw order could be In 1964, the Ontario Water Resources Commission conducted Ontario Gets a New Mining Act easily reversed by this or a future government. It also doesn’t a study of radiological pollution in the Serpent River In 1955, the federal to suffer considerably from wastes and associated By Ramsey Hart address the large areas of claims that have already been staked. watershed near Elliot Lake. They indicated that the magnitude government, through the the mining and milling of contaminants. and distribution of pollution in the Serpent River watershed department of Indian and uranium. Decisions to develop Extensive revisions to Ontario’s Mining Act were approved by the provincial Other aspects of the Act where MiningWatch recommended could not be fully evaluated but noted that sections of the Northern Affairs, and in uranium deposits and leave Lorraine Rekmans is a citizen of the changes have not been addressed at all. For example, there is watershed were contaminated. negotiations with Noranda an inter-generational legacy Algonquin Nation and an advocate legislature on October 21, 2009. nothing in the new Act to improve financial assurances or the Mines Limited, determined of waste and contamination for Aboriginal rights and social and “environmental assessment” process, or to prevent uranium It wasn’t uncommon for the dams that were eventually built to to open a sulphuric acid plant in their traditional lands were environmental justice. A former Canadian The new Act follows commitments made by Premier Dalton McGuinty to “modernize” the exploration and mining. collapse and release more contamination. Within about twenty at the Aboriginal village of made without their informed Green Party candidate, she currently serves Act and strike a balance between the diverse interests that are affected by and involved in the years of operation more than thirty dams built to contain Serpent River. The plant consent. It is appalling when as the party’s Aboriginal Affairs critic. mining industry. Increased pressure from high-profile conflicts with the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Ramsey Hart is Canada Program Coordinator with MiningWatch Canada where uranium tailings failed, dumping nuclear waste and chemical was built on the shore of the one considers the 10,000-year Inninuwug and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations and a surge in staking and exploration he works on a variety of mining policy issues and provides support to mining-affected toxins into the Serpent River watershed. By 1976, the entire North Channel of Lake Huron legacy of occupation by the activities on public and private, citizen-owned land in Ontario sparked the “Mining Act communities. Ramsey has a background in aquatic ecology and conservation and studied at Serpent River system, including more than a dozen lakes, was in order to take advantage of original people of the Serpent Modernization process.” While the Act was passed, most of the detail necessary for its the University of Waterloo and Trent University. badly contaminated for eighty kilometres or so (fifty miles) the fresh water supply and River watershed. implementation has yet to be written into the regulations. downstream. The International Joint Commission identified to supply acid used to mill the Serpent River system as the largest single contributor of uranium in mines around In Elliot Lake a memorial From initial appearances, the addition of wording around When Is a Lake No Longer a Lake? radium contamination to the Great Lakes. Elliot Lake and at Agnew now stands as a testament to Aboriginal consultation represents an important change in Lake and Pronto. the occupational death and the Act. Although touted as a major advancement by the A 2002 change to Canada’s oldest environmental protection law – the Fisheries Act – The Aboriginal people of Serpent River, descendants of disease that uranium mining government, several individual First Nations and regional allows some natural water bodies to be reclassified as “tailings impoundment areas,” people who had occupied this area for thousands of years, A recent analysis of the leaves in its wake. More First Nations’ organizations have commented that a vague allowing the mining industry to dump waste into them. expressed concerns that the drinking water and wildlife were contamination at the than 230 uranium miners requirement for “consultation” is not adequate and maintain threatened. The Ontario water standards in 1976 allowed Cutler sulphuric acid plant who died from diseases that the province needs to institutionalize “Free, Prior, and The law was originally changed for four existing operations; six more have been added for only 3 picocuries per liter (3 pCi/L) of radiation — a revealed that the site is still acquired working in the Informed Consent” for affected First Nations. In other words, if since then and another dozen are in various stages of approval. picocurie, one-trillionth of a curie, is a unit used to measure radiation contaminated. The various mines around Elliot Lake consultation is to be meaningful then communities must have levels. Nonetheless, Health and Welfare Canada assured the sources of contamination, have their names engraved the right to say no to projects they determine are not in their A MiningWatch Canada review of projects in Newfoundland and British Columbia Serpent River First Nation that the people who took water for leaching into Lake Huron on the memorial, with new interest. Unfortunately, there is nothing currently in the new proposing to use lakes for waste disposal showed that all of the lakes “leak” – meaning domestic purposes from the Serpent River “do not face a health since 1956, include the names added as more die. Act that requires consent or recognizes First Nations’ right to water readily flows out of them into the surrounding groundwater. risk,” even though the radiation level was at 6.2 picocuries per former tailings pond and the There is no monument for the say “no.” Another concern is that the Act passes responsibility liter. While the Ontario government installed water treatment sulphur stockpiles. original people of this area for consultation on to mining companies when it is the legal There are currently no proposals for mine waste disposal in any Ontario lakes. The facilities for the town of Serpent River, no such facility was who struggle daily with the duty of the government to engage in consultation. provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec have laws that can protect water bodies from built for the Aboriginal people of the Serpent River First The people of the Serpent perpetual legacy of radioactive this practice. The other eight provinces and three territories, including Ontario, do not. Nation. River First Nation continue

18 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Ontario 19 Of concern to WRPC is not This is of no small concern The Crandon Mine Battle (1975-2003) Failed Promises at the Flambeau Mine only the health of Wisconsin’s to citizens. Consuming By Al Gedicks Mural by Susan Bietila By Laura Furtman waters, but the fact that water with manganese levels the DNR’s lax approach of 14,000 ppb has been to enforcement and FMC’s associated with causing nerve Rio Tinto’s Flambeau Mine, hailed by industry as an claims of environmental damage similar to that seen success send the wrong in Parkinson’s disease. What’s example of how mining can be done in the Great message to citizens and tribes more, this contaminated in the Great Lakes region that groundwater is headed toward Lakes region without harming the environment, are faced with new mining the Flambeau River, just 140 proposals. feet from the backfilled pit. has recently been exposed as polluting Wisconsin’s FMC is a subsidiary of Rio When confronted with their waters. Tinto, the same company own data, FMC’s response that is seeking permits to has been that the Flambeau open two new nickel-copper Mine “has adhered to every mines in Marquette County, regulation and Wisconsin’s The information was brought to light as the result of a Michigan (Eagle Project) and stringent mining laws” notice of intent to file a citizen suit initiated in 2009 by Aitkin County, Minnesota (FMC Press Release, June 18, the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC). (Tamarack Project). 2009). What the company One of the most significant 12-square mile tract of land arsenic, copper and cadmium. as their non-Indian neighbors environmental alliance, The Council, founded in 1982 to address concerns over has failed to acknowledge, mine battles in the history promised to the Mole Lake The mine would also have in the town of Nashville to combined with major mining in northern Wisconsin, solicited the help of The Flambeau Mine has however, is that Wisconsin’s of modern mining began in Chippewa in 1855. Treaties used toxic chemicals in ore oppose the mine and develop technical problems with the three respected scientists to review current and historic repeatedly been held up mining laws allow pollution 1975 when Exxon Minerals guaranteed Chippewa access processing (including up to economic alternatives to mine plan, made it clear that environmental monitoring data submitted by the Flambeau by company officials as an of groundwater within a discovered one of the 10 to wild rice, fish and some 20 tons of cyanide a month) mining jobs. the Crandon mine project Mining Company (FMC) to the Wisconsin Department of example of how this type of backfilled mine pit and largest zinc-copper sulfide wild game on ceded lands. and reduced groundwater had little likelihood of ever Natural Resources (DNR). The scientific team, comprised mining can be done without up to 1200 feet from the deposits in North America, But the economic, cultural tables in the area because of In 1995, the Mole Lake being developed. On October of Dr. David Chambers and Dr. Kendra Zamzow (Center harming the environment. edge of where the waste is adjacent to the Mole Lake and spiritual center of the the constant dewatering of the Chippewa became the first 28, 2003, Mole Lake and for Science in Public Participation; csp2.org) and Dr. Ken For example, Rio Tinto’s Jon buried. The net result is Sokaogon Chippewa Indian Mole Lake Chippewa is their proposed underground mine. Wisconsin tribe granted Forest County Potawatomi Parejko (Professor Emeritus), concluded the following: Cherry was quoted in the that adhering to Wisconsin’s Reservation near Crandon, wild rice lake. The rice, independent authority by the leaders announced that the August 4, 2008 issue of the allegedly “stringent” mining Wisconsin. Situated at called manoomin, or ‘gift from The construction of the US Environmental Protection two neighboring tribes had 1. Runoff from the southeast quadrant of the Flambeau Mining Journal (Marquette, laws does not equate with the headwaters of the the Creator,’ is an essential largest toxic waste dump in Agency to regulate water jointly purchased and divided Mine site significantly exceeds Wisconsin surface water MI) as stating, “The facts clean water. Wolf River, the proposed part of the Chippewa diet, state history at the headwaters quality on their reservation, the 2,939 acre Crandon quality standards and is polluting a nearby stream that flows show that Flambeau underground shaft mine an important cash crop, and of the pristine Wolf River including upstream mine property for $16.5 into the Flambeau River. continues to demonstrate the What’s more, FMC removed was one mile upstream of a sacred part of the band’s posed an unacceptable discharges from the proposed million. The alliance had environment is protected.” only the richest ore from the tribe’s wild rice beds, religious rituals. economic and environmental mine. driven down the site price 2. Groundwater flowing from the mine site toward the the Flambeau deposit and five miles downwind of the risk to the downstream tourist by tens of millions of dollars Flambeau River does not meet Wisconsin groundwater Dr. Chambers and his team then closed shop, leaving Forest County Potawatomi The Crandon/Mole Lake industry on this Class I trout The successful Indian- by driving away potential quality standards, or even the more lenient mining permit have demonstrated otherwise local workers unemployed Reservation, and 40 miles mine would have extracted stream. As local opposition environmental alliance built mining company partners. standards. by citing FMC’s own data. and the community with (via the Wolf River) upstream approximately 55 million increased, Exxon withdrew public support for legislative As he tacked up a giant For example, Dr. Zamzow an environmental problem of the Menominee Nation. tons of sulfide ore during the from the project in 1986, passage of a sulfide mining ‘SOLD’ sign on the company, 3. Statistical analyses of Flambeau River walleye, crayfish pointed out that manganese that neither the DNR nor A quarter-century later, thirty-year life of the project. citing low metal prices. But moratorium bill in 1998 that Potawatomi mine opponent and sediment data collected by FMC raise significant doubts levels in a well within the FMC want to acknowledge after a series of five mining Over its lifetime, the mine in 1993 Exxon returned, this would prohibit the opening Dennis Shepherd exclaimed, about the company’s claim of “no impact” of the Flambeau backfilled pit have typically publicly. companies were involved would have generated 44 time with a new partner, the of a new mine in a sulfide ore “We rocked the boat. Now we Mine on the Flambeau River. exceeded 25,000 parts per in the project, the proposed million tons of wastes – the Canadian-based Rio Algom. body until a similar mine had own the boat.” billion (ppb) ever since To follow developments and mine has been defeated and equivalent of eight Great been operated for ten years WRPC Attorney Glenn Stoddard summed up his client’s sampling first began in 1999, view legal documents, visit the mine site is now owned Pyramids of Egypt. When To protect tribal resources elsewhere and closed for ten Al Gedicks is an environmental and case by stating: “The notice of intent letter alleges that the with some readings as high WRPC’s website at wrpc.net. by two neighboring tribes. metallic sulfide waste has and assert tribal sovereignty, years without pollution from indigenous rights activist and scholar. He DNR has failed to properly regulate FMC and has, instead, as 40,000 ppb. That’s 45-70 contact with water and the Mole Lake Chippewa acid mine drainage. is the author of The New Resource Wars allowed the company to violate the law and portray the times higher than what the Laura Furtman and Roscoe Churchill The site lies on territory sold air, the potential result is developed a multifaceted (1993), Resource Rebels (2001), and the Flambeau Mine as an environmental success story when it company predicted and much co-authored The Buzzards Have Landed! by the Chippewa (Ojibwe) sulfuric acid, plus high levels strategy that included The widespread opposition forthcoming book, Dirty Gold (September, The Flambeau River; Photo is not.” higher than baseline levels, - The Real Story of the Flambeau Mine Nation to the United States of poisonous heavy metals building alliances with to the proposed mine and 2010). courtesy Teresa Bertossi which averaged 90-360 (2007). She is a registered pharmacist. in 1842 and directly on a such as mercury, lead, zinc, environmental groups as well the strength of the Indian- ppb, depending on depth.

20 Headwaters News - Citizen Journalism for the Great Lakes - Spring 2010 Wisconsin 21 Hard Facts On Hardrock and Uranium Mining Human Rights, Rio Tinto and the Integrity of Protest By Reverend Jon Magnuson

As a clergyman, my Rio Tinto, BHP-Billiton while whispering in her ear involvement in the collective and Anglo American. Seven that this could be good for her Hardrock Mining (also known as metallic sulfide mining) Uranium is primarily used to create high density penetrating protest against Rio Tinto months earlier the country of family, would his argument is the mining of metals that are embedded in an ore body weapons (the cause of “Gulf War Syndrome” in military is grounded in a personal Norway, one of Rio Tinto’s be any more persuasive?” containing sulfur. veterans and civilians), nuclear bombs, as well as electricity. history of advocacy for largest investors, announced indigenous people’s legal a decision to divest from the That’s what’s facing us here Metallic sulfide mining generates large volumes of mining The first step in the fuel cycle for nuclear energy is the rights and an increasingly company because of “severe in the Upper Peninsula of wastes because of the low percentage of metals in most ore energy intensive mining and milling process. troubled awareness that environmental damage” at its Michigan. We’re unabashedly bodies. all of us, to some degree or mine in West Papua. being courted by a wealthy, Exposure to uranium can cause lung cancer, bone cancer and another, remain entrapped irresponsible multinational Acid mine drainage occurs when sulfide-containing rocks are reproductive problems. in the iron cage of Western In the discussion that ensued, mining company. We not exposed to water and air, forming sulfuric acid. culture; as Hermann Hesse the Church representative, a only have the right to refuse More than 230 miners died from diseases acquired while aptly observed, “asleep” from former British diplomat to their advances, we have, from Acid mine drainage may occur in mine waste heaps and working in uranium mines around Elliot Lake, Ontario. deeper dimensions of spiritual Scandinavia, tossed out one of a moral point of view, from active or abandoned mine workings. living. his working principles: “It’s a stance of integrity and Canada is the world’s largest producer of uranium with always good to talk with the alliance with the Keweenaw According to the Government of Norway acid mine roughly 20% of the world’s supply. The United States ranks Last April I traveled with a enemy.” I thought about my Bay Indian Community, an drainage is “considered one of the most serious mining- 8th in production. farmer and writer to London, own daughter, now living in imperative to stand up and related environmental problems across the world.” England to attend the Annual Colorado, and her musings say, “No thank you, leave us Acid mine drainage at the The world’s top-producing uranium mining companies General Meeting of Rio to me one evening on the alone.” Buck Mine, in Iron County, Environmental impacts from acid mine drainage include in 2008 were Rio Tinto (18.1% of the market), Cameco Tinto. We joined members of telephone about a recent visit Michigan; Photo courtesy destruction of aquatic life and contamination of drinking (15.1%) and Areva (14.3%). the London Mining Network to Aspen, where high-end Jon Magnuson is Lutheran (ELCA) Gabriel Caplett water that can last for centuries. to publicly express, during bars were filled with beautiful Campus Pastor at Northern Michigan Rio Tinto owns the Rossing uranium mine – one of the the company’s stockholder young women in their early University and also Director of The Cedar Acid mine drainage can introduce toxic heavy metals (such world’s largest – with the Government of Iran. meeting, our dismay about twenties, dressed in black, Tree Institute, a nonprofit organization as arsenic, lead and mercury) into the water. what many of us believe are on the arms of older, wealthy that initiates projects and provides services According to financial documents from Bitterroot manipulative and unethical men. in the areas of mental health, religion, and High levels of exposure to heavy metals can cause cancer, Resources, the company (working with Cameco) spent more actions by Rio Tinto in the the environment. birth defects, neurological disorders, and other health than $700,000 on uranium exploration in Michigan during Upper Peninsula. I carried I asked the former British problems. the first 9 months of 2009. Photo courtesy Gabriel Caplett with me documents of protest diplomat, “Sir, do you have from the Keweenaw Bay any children?” He nodded In Canada the Mine Environmental Neutral Drainage Some of Canada’s provincial governments have legislated Indian Community and a his affirmation. “If an old, program estimates total liability for acid mine drainage at outright bans on uranium mining, while other provinces petition signed by 100 leaders overweight, well-dressed $2 - $5 billion. have moratoria on uranium exploration and mining. In the contentious battle unfolding around a proposed sulfide from faith communities rich man with bad breath mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the particular focus of bordering the area where approached your 19-year- In the United States overall cleanup for acid mine drainage Canada’s Elliot Lake area, north of Lake Huron, hosted over intense opinion depends, of course, on whom you’re listening the proposed mine would be old daughter in Aspen,” I is estimated to be around $30 billion, with up to 550,000 a dozen uranium mines – eight of them owned by Rio to. Most of the pro and con arguments are based in science and located. continued, “and with all good sites requiring cleanup. Algom, a subsidiary of RTZ (now Rio Tinto). economics. Lost in most public debate is any reference to the courtesy asked her for a date, moral implications of this heated public controversy. Shortly before we left suggesting he had a great Uranium is typically found at low concentrations. The In 1975 a power failure at one of the Elliot Lake uranium London to return to the financial deal for her while, at mining of uranium creates large amounts of radioactive mines caused a 500,000-gallon spill. By 1990 at least 10 According to an 1842 treaty between the US government and United States my colleague the same time, she knew he waste. major lakes were permanently contaminated. local Native American tribes, native peoples’ ongoing access and I met with the Ethical was a felon with a criminal to hunt, fish and gather are protected forever on land Rio Investment Advisory Group record, would you encourage Mining and exploration of uranium can result in the spread Some 80 spills have been recorded at a Cameco uranium Tinto is trying to mine. As Native American leaders continue for the Church of England. her to sit down and see what of radioactive dust particles through the air, as well as water mine near Douglas, Wyoming, as well as pond leaks, well- fighting to protect these provisions recorded in hundreds of The Church, we learned, he had to offer? And, if in contamination. casing failures, and migration of radioactive water into treaties established between the US government and sovereign holds over $100 million fact she initially refused his drinking-water aquifers. indigenous nations, there’s emerging a growing consciousness (£62 million) in investments advances but he wanted to of potential conflicts between human rights issues and with the world’s three show her his expensive car unfettered economic expansion. largest mining companies: and flashed a roll of $100 bills

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