Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Michigan OK's open-pit mine along river & WI border

[Updated] Michigan's misnamed Department of Environmental Quality, (DEQ), has approved the final permit which Canadian operators need to begin open-pit metallic mining along the Menominee River
Menominee River | Tom Young
at the Michigan-Wisconsin border - - a move in favor of toxic, metals' mining that puts tribal land and waters at risk and is likely to speed along similar projects on our increasingly-polluted side of the border promoted by newly-strengthened lobbying and enabled by the business-friendly Wisconsin governor and legislature several months ago.

Brown County in Wisconsin opposes the project because downriver pollution ending up in Green Bay is but one if many threats facing anglers, homeowners, and tourist businesses.

The chamber of commerce mentality, GOP-led governments in Wisconsin and Michigan these days care nothing for fair play, environmental stewardship, native tradition or water purity (Google "Flint water or "Kewaunee County water" or "Foxconn first 26 acres of wetlands" for example).

Only the dollar, the special interests which hand them out and then demand favors from these Not So Great Anymore Great Lakes states' governments have any sway; look no farther than the hearing underway just this week in Sheboygan contesting decisions by the  Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - - the corporately-managed equivalent of Michigan's DEQ - - to approve a wetland fill permit for privately-owned golf course construction along the Lake Michigan shoreline that includes handing over land inside an adjoining state park for a road, vehicle and equipment storage and construction of a large privately-owned building.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Who needs fish when there are profits to be made along with donations to republican coffers?

More citizens need to become informed as to how they are being exploited by corporate interests while partisan hacks pound them with propaganda. Right-wing voters are such maroons.