The Crandon Zinc-Copper Mine: Environmental and Cultural Concerns in Wisconsin

1. The Crandon zinc-copper shaft mine proposed in WisconsinUpstream of the Mole Lake Chippewa Reservationand the Wolf River

3. 1976 Discovers one of North America’s largest zinc/copper sulfide ore bodies 1981 Lobbyist James Klauser says WI “could host up to 10 metal mines by 2000...." 1983Mines exempted from clean groundwater standards, toxic waste standard, foreign land ownership law. 1986 Withdraws its permit application after Final EIS. 1987 Klauser appointed Secretary of Administration in Tommy Thompson’s cabinet. 1988 WI declares Wolf River "Outstanding Resource Water" Exxon’s first round (1976-86)

5. Metallic mining concerns • Environmental • Sulfides (sulfuric acid) contaminate for 200,000 years • Heavy metals, cyanide, arsenic, etc. • 10,000 miles of U.S. rivers poisoned • Economic • Boom-and-bust effect • Impact on existing industries • Cultural • Native cultures • Rural lifestyle

6. Environmental concerns • Run-off of sulfuric acid, heavy metals • impacts on fish, wild rice, other aquatic life • Drawdown of groundwater table from shaft pumping • Impacts on water supplies, wild rice, wetlands • Pumping groundwater • Treatment of contaminated water in perpetuity • Wastes monitored for 40 years

7. 44 million tons of waste • Tailings Management Area • 90 feet deep • largest toxic dump in WI history: 282 football fields • Waste rock backfill of shaft • Release of toxic dust into air

8. Wetlands & springs in 4,800-acre mine site • “You couldn’t find a more • difficult place to mine.” • -Exxon engineer

9. Company’s environmental arguments • “Only old mines pollute” • Western U.S. acid mine drainage • “New technologies” • Wastewater treatment • Extraction of sulfuric acid from wastes • Isolate mine through “grouting”

10. Effects on Wolf River tourism • Lack of jobs for locals • alternative economic options not explored • Boom-and-bust cycle • poorest areas often were • mine-dependent • Sudden lay-offs or mine closure • swings in metal prices, • reduced demands Economic concerns

11. Company’s economic arguments • 400 jobs for mine operation • Keep kids in depressed rural area • Secondary contracts to area businesses • Crandon, Rhinelander, Antigo benefit • Mining equipment contracts • Milwaukee-area manufacturers

12. Need for metals? • Low prices • Glut of zinc and copper • New sources in Russia, China • Less use • Plastics/ceramics in autos, piping • Fiber optics replacing copper wire • More metallic recycling

13. Cultural concerns • Wild rice beds • Future of hunting/ fishing/gathering • Burials and sacred sites • Influx of outsiders • Rural social fabric

14. Ojibwe (Chippewa) lands ceded in treaties Six Wisconsin reservations Treaties guarantee tribal access to resources

15. Treaties (off-reservation rights) • “Supreme Law of the Land” (Article VI Constitution) • Federal courts recognize rights • Rights in ceded territories retained, not granted • Boldt 1974 WA, Voigt 1983 WI, Mille Lacs 1999 MN • Legal tool to guarantee access to resources • Not mineral rights, but prevent harm to resources • Basis of resource co-management with non-Indian govt’s

16. Sovereignty (on-reservation rights) • Self-determination, not control by state/local gov’ts • “Nation within a nation,” “domestic dependent nation” • Cultural/economic autonomy, not assimilation • Federal trust responsibility to protect reservation • “EPA Treatment-As-State” in Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act • International legal tools • United Nations, international agreements

17. 1837 & 1842 Treaties guarantee Ojibwe (Chippewa) access to fish, wild game, rice, medicine plants 1854 Four large WI Ojibwe reservations established after “death march” removal fails. 1908 State bans off-reservation tribal spearfishing. 1934 Mole Lake, St. Croix reservations established. 1983 Voigt decision upholds treaty in 1974 LCO case 1985 White sportfishers’ anti-treaty backlash begins. Treaty rights history

18. 1988 Large mobs confront spearing, although Ojibwe harvest 3% of walleye. 1989 Witnesses monitor racial violence and harassment. Ojibwe reject treaty “lease.” 1992 Federal injunction against racial harassment; anti-treaty groups’ environmental claims discredited. 1995 Similar clash averted around Menominee treaty; sportfishers see mining as greater challenge. Treaty rights conflicts

19. “We have more in common with the anti-Indian people than we do with the State of Wisconsin.” — Spearfisher Walt Bresette, 1990

20. 1992 Exxon returns to Crandon to reapply for mine permit (with Phelps-Dodge briefly). 1993 Exxon and Canada’s Rio Algom form Crandon Mining Company (CMC). Lynne mine plan dropped by Noranda in Oneida County. Flambeau mine begins 4-year shipment of copper ore from Ladysmith in Rusk County. 1995 CMC plan to pipe wastewater to Wisconsin River heightens opposition. 1996 Wolf & Wisconsin R. speaking tour draws 2000. 1997 Nashville voters oust pro-mine town board, elect new board to rescind “local agreement” with company. Exxon returns (1992-98)

21. Mole Lake Chippewa (1 mi.) • wild rice beds, water quality • Forest Co. Potawatomi (5 mi.) downwind) • air quality, toxic dust • Menominee (30 mi.) • Wolf River water • Mohican • (Stockbridge-Munsee) Niiwin (“Four”) Tribes

22. Menominee Sustainable Forestry

23. Overcoming divisions • Race • Native Americans vs. • white sportfishers • Class • Labor unionists vs. • environmentalists • Region • Rural northern WI vs .urban southern WI

24. Sportfishing clubs fish, surface water, toxics Environmental groups wetlands, groundwater, wildlife/species Alliance to stopCrandon mine • Native American • nations • cultural concerns • wild rice, sacred sites

25. Rural residents economic impacts on tourism industry, northern lifestyle Labor unions environment, company health/safety track records Students corporate control, future sustainability Farmers feeder line to mine from Duluth-Wausau transmission line Growingalliance

26. Proposedtransmission lines From dams that flooded Cree land in Manitoba… …through MN/WI farmlands, partly to provide power for mine.

27. SaveOur UniqueLands(SOUL)FightingDuluth-Wausau345-kilovolttransmissionline, opposing115-kv feeder line to Crandon http://www.wakeupwisconsin.com

28. Perrier/Nestle in Wisconsin Adams County farmers protect rural wells from high-capacity pumps; Ho-Chunk protect sacred sites, 2000-2002 Mecosta Co., Michigan

29. 1998 Exxon sells most Crandon mine interests to Rio Algom, which sets up Nicolet Minerals Company (NMC). 1998 Mining Moratorium law passed, undermined by DNR 1999 NMC revises mine plans, sets back pipeline. 1999 Mole Lake, Potawatomi win EPA backing for tribal laws 1999 Federation of Fly Fishers rates the Wolf River as most endangered U.S. river. 2000 Speaking tour/rally against Crandon mine and Duluth-Wausau transmission line. Rio Algom goes it alone (1998-2000)

30. Tribal andFederal Government • Tribal • Mole Lake “Treatment As State” (Clean Water Act) • Potawatomi “Treatment As State” (Clean Air Act) • Menominee, Potawatomi and Mole Lake technical research • Federal • Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit; • Possible role of EPA • Federal lawsuits on DNR permit

31. Local and StateGovernment • Local • Nashville local agreement lawsuit; • Downstream gov’t resolutions • State • DNR permit process (2004 ?) • Mining reform bills

32. Wisconsin miningreform bills • Mining moratorium (passed 1998) • Requires companies to show “safe” mines • DNR assessing 3 examples in AZ, CA, Canada • Cyanide ban (Passed Senate 2001; reintroduced 2003) • Mine would use up to 200 tons a year • Spills around world killed fish • No Special Treatment (passed Senate 2001; reintroduce 2003) • End legal exemptions for mining wastes

34. Typical environmental movements • Stereotype of environmentalists • Urban-based • White • Upper middle class • “Not In My Back Yard” • Portrayal by companies • Hippies • Yuppie elitists • Don’t care about rural jobs

35. Wisconsin movement • Unlikely Alliances • Rural-based • Multiracial • Middle/ working class • Multigenerational • “Not In Anyone’s • Back Yard” • Dilemma for companies • Grassroots, common folk • Cannot easily be defeated 1994 2000

36. Progressive populism LaFollettes Regional pride Northern Wisconsin vs. “Madison” Environmental ethics Muir, Leopold Native American rights Opposed removal, treaty violations, termination Drawing from strands ofWisconsin history

37. 2000 Rio Algom and its NMC purchased by London-based South African miner Billiton. 2001 Billiton merges with Australian mining giant Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP), forms BHP Billiton. Nov. 2001 Cyanide Ban and “No Special Treatment” bills pass WI Senate, held up in Assembly June 2002 BHP Billiton signals willingness to sell site to public. Alliance for joint management Sept. 2002 NMC staff laid off but permit process continues. Doyle backs public acquisition. April 2003 Mine site sold to Northern Wisconsin Resource Group, owned by logging company ex-owners of site. It could find no corporate partner. BHP Billiton in control (2000-2003)

38. CRANDON PROTESTS AUSTRALIA (BHP shareholders’ meeting, 2001) SOUTH AFRICA (at Sustainability Summit, 2002)

39. Mining industry reactionto Wisconsin opposition • “The increasingly sophisticated political maneuvering by • environmental special interest groups has made permitting a mine in • Wisconsin an impossibility.” • —North American Mining (Toronto), 1998 • “Wisconsin’s low investment attractiveness score suggests the • impact of that state’s moratorium on mining, and a well-publicized • aversion to mining. One vice president of exploration complains that • in Wisconsin, you ‘can’t get anything done that is meaningful’.” • —Fraser Institute Survey of Mining CEOs (Vancouver), 2000

40. Mining industry reaction The Vancouver-based Fraser Institute issues an annual Investment Attractiveness Index ranking the reception that all countries, states and provinces give the mining industry. Wisconsin ranked at the global bottom in 2003, with a score of 13 out of 100.

41. More miningindustry reaction Wisconsin anti-mining industry websites are operated by “barbarians at the gates of cyberspace.” —Mining Voice (Washington), 1998 “The Wolf Watershed Educational Project (WWEP), a U.S.-based alliance of environmental groups, Native American nations, local residents, unions and students ...is just one example of what is becoming a very real threat to the global mining industry: global environmental activism...” --Mining Environmental Management (London), 2000

42. The End: Oct. 28, 2003 Forest County Potawatomi and Mole Lake announce purchase of mine site for $16.5 million.

43. The End: Oct. 28, 2003 Mole Lake takes ownership of Nicolet Minerals Company “We rocked the boat; Now we own the boat.”

44. The End: Oct. 28, 2003 5,000-acre mine site will be managed to protect natural and cultural resources for future generations.

45. The End: Oct. 28, 2003 Peace comes to Crandon area after 28 years of conflict. “Now the war is over.”

46. The End: Oct. 28, 2003 Native/non-Native grassroots alliance wins a victory of of national and global relevance.

50. Websites on Crandon mine No Crandon Mine links http://www.nocrandonmine.com Midwest Treaty Network http://www.treatyland.com Nicolet Minerals Company http://www.crandonmine.com