There is a lot to learn from the successful Crandon mine battle.
Victory lessons
By
Glenn Stoddard
The good news for everyone in Wisconsin who appreciates clean air and water, healthy fish and wildlife, and the importance of the tourism economy is that, after nearly 30 years, the Crandon mine battle is finally over.
Just as they did at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Indians won. Wisconsin’s Native American tribes beat Exxon, Rio Algom, BHP, WMC, NMC, James Klauser, ex-Governors Earl, Thompson and McCallum, and, most recently, the Connor family.
With the Crandon mine purchase, the Indians bought back some of the land and resources that were stolen from them nearly 200 years ago. They did it using gaming revenues collected largely from the great grandchildren of the European settlers who stole the land in the first place. What a great victory for the Sokaogon Chippewa Community, the Forest County Potawatomi Indian Tribe, and everyone who appreciates the environment. We should all congratulate the two tribes and celebrate with them.
However, we should not celebrate this victory without learning some important lessons—three of them—from the long battle over the proposed Crandon mine.
The first lesson is that in battles to protect the environment, tenacity and fighting for principle can win out in the end over the temptation to compromise with powerful interests. Environmental leaders, in particular, need to learn this lesson. During the nearly 30-year battle over the Crandon mine, environmental leaders in Madison and elsewhere made many compromises only because they believed the mining companies were too powerful.
Many “pragmatists” thought compromise was the only way to protect the environment—even just a little. But the tribes and the grassroots environmentalists never compromised. They won in the end because they outfought and outlasted the profiteers and environmental leaders who thought they knew best.
The second lesson is that environmentalists simply cannot trust politicians unless they have a proven track record that demonstrates a strong personal commitment to the environment.
State government played no significant role in the mine purchase. Governor Doyle ran on the issue only a year ago, but he was nowhere to be found when the two Indian tribes were actually negotiating the mine purchase. Just one year ago, tribal and environmental leaders proposed that state government work together with the tribes and other groups to purchase the mine and establish a cooperatively managed natural area at the site based on the model of the Kickapoo River Reserve.
Candidate Doyle endorsed the idea while campaigning, but once he was elected his environmental campaign rhetoric was shelved and he has since turned his back on the environment time and time again. Incredibly, although his staff was apparently briefed on the negotiations, Governor Doyle did not become involved.
The third lesson is that we need to strengthen—not weaken—Wisconsin’s mining laws. Contrary to complaints aired publicly by Gordon Connor, Jr., the now former project manager for Nicolet Minerals Company (NMC), the two tribes were not able to purchase the mine simply because of an “intense anti-corporate feeling in the regulatory review process and [an] overall hostile political climate for metallic mining in this state,” as he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
And contrary to a recent Wisconsin State Journal editorial, the Legislature does not need to pass Senate Bill 246, a bill that would establish tight deadlines for the state’s regulatory agencies to decide whether or not to grant environmental permits. This bill would force the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other state agencies to act quickly to process permit applications. If the agencies do not rush the process, the permits would be automatically granted. This type of “regulatory reform” would almost certainly have allowed the former owners of the Crandon mine to develop a huge source of pollution that would have ruined the Wolf River forever.
Wisconsin’s “strict” mining laws did not stop the proposed Crandon mine. What doomed the project were the site’s constantly changing corporate ownership, fluctuating metal prices, and changing engineering designs. The various owners came up with several designs for how to handle the tailings or waste rock from the mine, and several different plans for how to close the mine site once mining was completed.
The most recent mining plan acknowledged that the proposed mine may never be fully reclaimed, because it included a proposed “perpetual pump and treat system” that would almost certainly have failed at some unknown point in the future and led to pollution of the Wolf River. Additionally, the latest mining proposal would have involved the use of deadly cyanide at the mine site. All of these changing proposals were complex and required years of development by the companies, followed by years of analysis by the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Had it not been for the constantly changing mining plans, the Crandon mine would most likely have been approved several years ago. It even looked like approval was imminent in 1997 and 1998, after Forest County and the Towns of Nashville and Lincoln entered into local agreements with Exxon and NMC.
During the 1998 race for governor between Ed Garvey and Tommy Thompson, Thompson had a political conversion and decided to sign Rep. Spencer Black’s “Mining Moratorium” bill into law on the shores of the Wolf River on Earth Day. (It should be called the “Black-Garvey Mining Moratorium” law.) That law was weakened on its way through the Legislature by NMC’s successful lobbying efforts, and many people feared the DNR would take a pass and allow NMC to mine despite the Mining Moratorium law. The DNR has steadfastly refused to write administrative rules to implement the law—even under Governor Doyle.
Wisconsin’s mining laws are still far too weak to prevent the kind of mining disaster that could ruin our environmental resources and greatly harm our tourism industry. There are many other valuable mineral deposits in this state that are of interest to mining companies. They could be exploited and developed if we do not learn from the Crandon experience.
For starters, the DNR should adopt administrative rules to establish minimum qualifications for mining permit applicants, as well as rules and procedures for implementation of the Mining Moratorium law. Even more important, Governor Doyle and the Legislature should pass a strong bill to forever ban the use of cyanide in mining, an action several other states have already taken. (Pushing harder for this legislation would also help improve Governor Doyle’s sagging reputation among environmentalists.)
Additionally, we need legislation to ban approval of any mining project that cannot be completely reclaimed within five years after mining has been completed. In other words, we need legislation to prohibit the DNR from approving any mining project that would involve a long-term pump and treat system as part of its reclamation plan. Now that NMC will no longer be lobbying for loopholes in our mining laws, no one in the governor’s office, the Legislature or the DNR should have any reason to oppose such legislation.
November 6, 2003
Glenn Stoddard lives in McFarland and is a partner in the law firm of Garvey & Stoddard, S.C.