Northern Wisconsin Senator Robert Jauch’s (D-Poplar, WI) reaction to the threat from Gogebic Taconite (GTac) to leave Northern Wisconsin and look elsewhere for mining projects is shocking. Jauch suggested that GTac “shoot for getting a new bill in the fall session”. GTac’s first attempt earlier this year proved to be a disaster. Legislators made the same mistake by allowing mining companies and their friends to rewrite Wisconsin’s mining laws.
This proposal, LRB 2035, is simply egregious. (LRB 2035 may be reviewed at savethewatersedge.com). If LRB 2035 had become law the health Northern Wisconsin’s Bad River Watershed and the Kagon Sloughs would be in serious jeopardy. The Bad River Watershed is still a pristine area providing recreation, clean water, sturgeon spawning grounds, one of the North American’s largest wild rice beds, and many streams filled with brook trout. It provides refuge for the winged one as they travel North and South on their seasonal journeys. Plants, animals, and thousands of years of nature’s work are threatened as mining companies and their friends attempted to strip the protection provided by Wisconsin’s laws and regulations. These safeguards were developed to protect our resources from pollution and ravages of corporate America. These safeguards include time to study and research massive proposals that have the potential to leave degraded water, waste, and a defaced landscape. Proposed time lines do not allow the Department of Natural Resources adequate time for the research and review of proposals to develop mines. The ability to carefully watchdog mega corporations takes time and resources if we are protect the destruction of wilderness for economic gain.
Jauch’s enthusiasm for giving GTac another opportunity to rewrite Wisconsin’s mining laws is echoed by Assembly Speaker, Jeff Fitzgerald, (R-Horicon, WI) as he joins the mining lobbyists and calls the not yet released proposal a “good jobs bill”. Fitzgerald may need to be reminded our water resources are more important and any “good jobs bill” needs to provide protection for our resources. One wonders what his reaction would be to a “good jobs bill” that drained the Horicon Marsh in his district.
The Bad River Watershed is also the homeland of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe people. Bad River Government must not be ignored as the new bill emerges. Respect for our friends and neighbors demands that cultural and social systems must be honored. It is imperative that legislators set the example by including the Bad River Tribal Government in all discussions with corporate officials, their lobbyists, and proposed legislation as it is developed.
The first attempt by GTac to rewrite Wisconsin protection legislation was rebuffed by the people. Legislators who supported the proposal and the process should be embarrassed. I urge both Jauch and Fitzgerald to remember government serve the public good – not corporate stockholders. Hopefully Jauch and Fitzgerald will strive to make this second attempt to rewrite Wisconsin’s laws transparent and open to public review and scrutiny.
