Aquila Resources, a Canadian exploration company, has proposed an open pit mine deeper than the height of Wisconsin’s tallest building, Milwaukee’s U.S. Bank tower. The depth of that pit, a mere 150 feet from the Menominee River, which forms the Wisconsin-Michigan border would exceed 750 feet. The pit would be 2000 feet wide and 2500 feet long. That would be the enormous size of the controversial Back Forty open pit gold and zinc sulfide mine recently given preliminary approval by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ is still reviewing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and the wetlands permit.
The proposed mine has special significance for the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin because it is their original tribal homeland. The Menominee reservation is 60 miles southwest of the proposed mine but the tribe’s sacred place of origin is at the mouth of the Menominee River. The tribe fears that sulfide wastes from the proposed mine threatens pollution of the Menominee River and the spawning grounds for one of the largest populations of lake sturgeon in the Lake Michigan basin.
In February 2017 the Menominee Tribe filed a petition for a contested case hearing on DEQ’s decision to approve the mining permit for the proposed Back Forty mine. “The MDEQ and Aquila Resources Inc. are well aware of the Menominee Indian Tribe’s close cultural connection to this area and our serious concern in regards to our cultural resources and mounds, including our ancestral burial sites located within the impact area of the proposed mine. Despite these valid and well documented concerns a full evaluation of the cultural resources and mounds threatened by this project never occurred,” stated Gary Besaw, Menominee Tribal Chairman. Because Michigan is one of only two states that has been delegated authority under the Clean Water Act, the mine application process is subject only to state permits. Michigan DEQ is not required to consult with the tribe or comply with the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act.
Opposition to the project has brought together the Menominee Nation with local citizens in the Front 40 environmental group in Lake Township, Michigan and Indian tribes and environmental organizations in both Michigan and Wisconsin. Over 2,000 members of the public wrote to the DEQ to express their concerns about the proposed mine with 98% of all comments opposed to the project.
The DEQ’s public hearing on the project in October 2016 brought over 350 people to the local high school in Stephenson to voice their opposition to the project. Just prior to the public hearing, the Marinette County Board in Wisconsin voted 28-0 to oppose the project, citing concerns over long term leaching of acid-producing wastes into the groundwater and the river and the risk to human health and the environment in Wisconsin and Michigan.
What You Can Do to Defend Clean Water
- Get your local unit of government (town, county, city), civic organization, sportfishing group or environmental group to pass a resolution opposing the Back Forty proposed mine. A sample resolution is linked here. Send copies of any resolutions to the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, 14 Copeland Avenue # 115, La Crosse, WI 54603-3413.
- Send a letter to the main financial investor in the Back Forty proposed mine letting them know that this project faces growing opposition in Wisconsin and Michigan and does not have a “social license to operate.” According to mining risk analysts like Ernst & Young, the fourth greatest risk to mining investors comes from “ignoring community voices and their environmental and public health concerns.” Send your letter to Mr. Oskar Lewnowski, CIO, Orion Mine Finance Group, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 3000, New York, NY 10036.
- Send a letter to the Ontario Securities Commission supporting their investigation of fraud or misleading information made in Aquila Resources’ Back Forty mine permit application to Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Aquila has told the DEQ that their project will be an open pit mining operation and the Life of Mine operation is planned to be approximately 7 years but the Back Forty is actually described as a 16 year combined open pit and underground mine in every single press release published by Aquila Resources, in their letters to investors and local community leaders, and in Aquila’s communications with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. Send your letter to Ontario Securities Commission, Inquiries Unit, 20 Queen Street West, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 358, Canada.
- Learn how you can support efforts to oppose the Back Forty proposed mine by contacting the Front 40 environmental group (www.menomineeriver.com), the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (www.nobackforty.org), the Mining Action Group in Michigan (www.savethewildup.org), the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (www.wrpc.net) or the River Alliance of Wisconsin (www.wisconsinrivers.org). Learn more and help spread the word by watching and sharing this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpDNfnJgO6g
This guest blog was written by Al Gedicks