Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Shawano County this week added its voice to a growing chorus of counties in Wisconsin and Michigan opposed to the proposed Back Forty Mine.
Aquila Resources Inc. plans to invest $261 million to build open-pit and underground mines for the gold- and zinc-rich deposit near the headwaters of the Menominee River, which is central to the Menominee Nation’s creation story.
The massive mine and processing facility would be located 50 yards from the banks of the Menominee River, which separates Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.
Aquila has already received three permits (air, mining and national pollutant discharge) from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. It still needs a wetlands permit.
The Menominee Nation is concerned that the acid mine drainage from the tailings, waste rock stockpiles and open pit would forever change the area.
Tribal Chairman Gary Besaw told the Shawano County Board on Wednesday that the river is a cultural resource for his people.
“There has never been an open pit sulfide mine built that has not polluted. Science is getting better, but it’s not there yet,” Besaw said.
The sulfide expected to be mined, when mixed with air and water, becomes sulfuric acid, Besaw warned, the same acid used in batteries.
“They might be able to stop it for a few years, but it will seep into the groundwater,” Besaw said. “It’s going to get into Green Bay. It’s going to get into Lake Michigan. We deserve to take care of our water for our babies.”
Menominee County, Michigan, along with Brown, Door, Oconto, Marinette and Menominee counties in Wisconsin have all passed resolutions opposing the mine.
Local supervisors expressed concern about how the mine would affect Wisconsin’s waterways. They also questioned whether their resolution opposing the mine would make a difference in whether Aquila gets the final permit.
Supervisor Tom Madsen recalled a visit from then-Attorney General Jim Doyle years ago at the College of Menominee Nation where Doyle compared the abundance of water in Wisconsin to oil in Texas.
“I think we have to protect the waters we have in our area and our state,” Madsen said. “We cannot let business interests keep digging and doing what they want to and ruining the water that we hold so precious. If you want to see people who don’t have water, go to Arizona.”
Supervisor Roger Miller said his opposition was both spiritual and practical. Shawano County residents have a right to clean water, he said.
“In Shawano County, we’re known for our clean water,” Miller said. “To even think of polluting it or causing harm to it, I have to object to it.”
Supervisor Deb Noffke also voiced her opposition, calling the proposed mine “a pit of nasty stuff.”
“All of these assurances that it will never leak, we can’t even build a flat roof that doesn’t leak eventually,” Noffke said. “I’m going to support this because I like to drink water, and I’d like my grandchildren to be able to drink water.”
Supervisor Dennis Knaak believes the county and state missed the boat on its opposition to the mine, noting that one of the earlier permits before the wetlands permit could have been denied if Wisconsin had opposed it before Michigan gave its blessing.
“The one before it was the one Wisconsin could have had something to say about,” Knaak said. “I’m not going to oppose this, but I’m not sure it’s going to have much impact.”
Supervisor John Ainsworth, the only supervisor who voted against the resolution, noted that there was intense opposition more than 20 years ago to a Crandon mine, which never came to be because planners didn’t want to sort through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources regulations. He suggested the county should not be so quick to believe Michigan would give approval to the Back Forty.