Bad River Band Can Regulate Water Quality, Protect Wild Rice Crop

Excellent development: The Bad River band of the Lake Superior Chippewa has won the right to set high water quality standards, thus making sure than any mines in the area would have to discharge only high-quality waste water.

As the Journal Sentinel explains:

Federal regulators have approved a northern Wisconsin Indian tribe’s request to regulate water quality, a move that could influence the construction of an iron ore mine near Hurley. 

The Bad River band of Lake Superior Chippewa said Wednesday that the Environmental Protection Agency had approved its application to set standards for water quality on tribal waters.

The approval also allows the tribe to impose limits on water uses on others outside the reservation who live upstream.

That could affect a proposed iron ore mine in the Bad River watershed that has been proposed by Gogebic Taconite, which is based in Hurley. The mine would be built in a ridge of hills to the southwest known as the Penokee range; in Michigan the same ridge is called Gogebic...

Gogebic Taconite’s plans for the mine are currently on hold while the company awaits possible changes in state law affecting the regulation of iron ore mining...

The standards will be stricter than current water quality regulations, said Cyrus Hester, a tribal environmental specialist. He noted, however, that the new rules are in compliance with EPA standards.

One aspect of the regulations allows the tribe to ensure that the quantity and quality of water from upstream sources do not affect the health of wild rice – a matter of cultural importance to the Bad River.