A standing-room-only crowd of roughly 250 people braved a cold January evening in search of information on an open pit iron mine recently proposed for Iron and Ashland Counties, in Wisconsin.
The meeting, moderated by Northland College President Mike Miller, was initiated by reporter Mike Simonson of KUWS (UW-Superior) and Wisconsin Public Radio. Simonson said he organized the meeting out of concern that solid information on the proposed mine had been all too scarce. Read the rest of this entry »
Two citizen groups — the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and the Center for Biological Diversity — and Laura Gauger (formerly Furtman), who is a member of both groups, recently filed a Clean Water Act citizen suit against Flambeau Mining Company, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto / Kennecott, over its partially reclaimed Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wis.
On November 16, 2010, the Wisconsin Resource Protection Council, Center for Biological Diversity, and Laura Gauger (collectively, “WRPC”) sent to the Flambeau Mining Company (FMC) a Notice of Intent to file a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit to abate the ongoing, unpermitted discharge of pollutants to a tributary of the Flambeau River known as “Stream C.” Stream C flows over the southeast corner of the Flambeau Mine site and has elevated levels of copper. It joins the Flambeau River about a quarter mile downstream from the mine.
Article from the Ashland Daily Press on a public forum on an iron mining proposal near Ashland: http://www.ashlandwi.com/articles/2010/12/15/news/doc4d0865a24da02916387653.txt
And the Ashland Daily Current reports that the mining interests gave Wisconsin’s new governor $10,000 in campaign donations: http://ashlandcurrent.com/article/10/12/15/mining-project-execs-gave-walker-10000
A sand story – It’s been almost two years since a group of citizens in Chippewa Falls, and surrounding Wisconsin communities came together to protest the City Council’s decision allowing Canadian Sand and Proppants, Inc. (CS&P) to build
Site of proposed sand processing plant in Chippewa Falls
a processing plant within the city limits that will process 2.6 million tons of sand a year for use in oil and gas wells across the country. Read the rest of this entry »
It was empowering, and I wish you all could have experienced being there or at the very least heard about it in your local newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »
Chippewa Falls is a city of 13,054 in Northwestern Wisconsin. It is historically a technology town, the birthplace of Seymour Cray and the development of Cray computers. Unfortunately, this area also has an abundance of the kind of specialized sand (called “frac”sand) used in the fracturing process by oil and gas companies to increase production. Canadian Sand and Proppants, Inc. (CSP) will need four sand mines in surrounding areas, bringing the sand into Chippewa Falls for processing, in order to run their plant at full capacity. The town of Howard, WI is fighting plans for the first mine. Read the rest of this entry »
Madison, Wisconsin—The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC) announced today at a press conference in the State Capitol Building that it intends to file a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and Kennecott’s Flambeau Mining Company (FMC). The lawsuit would be in response to ongoing water pollution that violates Wisconsin law and the Federal Clean Water Act at the Flambeau Mine, in Rusk County, unless the pollution and related issues are fully addressed within 30 days. Read the rest of this entry »
Madison, Wisconsin – Video clips from the Wisconsin State Capitol Building regarding the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council’s lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Kennecott Flambeau Mining Company regarding ongoing pollution and violation of state and federal law at the Flambeau Mine site in Rusk County.
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