Jason Arndt, jarndt@wolfrivermedia.com
Frank Koehn
An environmental activist opposed to a huge iron mine in northern Wisconsin shared his message with area residents Wednesday in Shawano.
Frank Koehn, president of the Penokee Hills Education Project, spoke before about 20 people at the Shawano Civic Center. His visit was sponsored by the Democratic Party of Shawano County.
The Penokee Hills Education Project is an outreach project of the Mining Impact Coalition and is focused on educating people about the risk of proposed iron mining in northern Wisconsin.
“It is important for us to realize how it is affecting our water,” Koehn said. “It needs to be protected for the future.”
Gogebic Taconite wants to dig a 4-mile long, 900-1,000-feet deep open-pit iron mine in the remote Penokee Hills south of Lake Superior, near Ashland.
“That would be the largest taconite mine in the world. It is halfway from here to Antigo,” Koehn said.
The company says the mine would provide more than 600 to 700 jobs for a depressed local economy and generate $1.5 billion in taxable revenue.
Critics argue there is no guarantee of jobs and the mine would have a devastating environmental impact on the huge Bad River watershed that runs through the region and drains into Lake Superior.
Opponents include the Bad River Band of the Ojibwe nation. Wild rice, a crop harvested by the band, is grown at the bottom of the complex watershed.
Digging into the land will affect 815 acres directly connected to waterways, Koehn said.
Mining waste would flow directly into the Bad River, polluting the water where the Ojibwe live with high concentrations of ammonia, nitrate and sulphuric acid, he said.
“That is environmental racism,” Koehn said.
Rick Adamski, vice chairman of the county Democratic Party, expressed skepticism about the mine’s projected economic impact in Iron and Ashland counties, and blamed the state Legislature for creating legislation catering to Gogebic Taconite.
“The Legislature and governor gave away the mine. We are not going to get paid for this, unless there is a profit,” he said. “The mining company will not be able to realize profit for a long time, so we had legislators give away our resources.”
The legislation, which passed the Legislature without any Democratic support, gives state environmental officials up to 480 days to make a permitting decision; previously the process was open-ended. It also bars public challenges during the process, allowing them only after the decision has been made.
The law creates a presumption that damage to wetlands is necessary and limits permit application fees to $2 million. It splits tax revenue on iron mining companies’ revenue between local governments and the state — right now all mining taxes go to the locals — and exempts companies from paying the state’s $7 per ton recycling fee on waste rock.
“If it doesn’t affect their environment now … it could in the future,” Koehn said. “The danger is that it is really easy to translate to local industries, including paper mills.”