Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Native American Tribe Protest Mining in Wis : EPA Site Tribe for Violations

Native Americans are now getting into the victim business along with  minority groups associated with progressive socialist Democrats in Wisconsin. Little wonder then the Bad River Band is being so aggressive in there assault on the mining operation, they are under investigation for breaking their own clean water violations by the EPA on Bad River land.
 
I'm not sure just what Bad River Band hope to gain by attacking the mining operation, which is completely within the law. But wait, maybe it's not about the law, maybe it's about what feels right and looks good?
 
This, the violation of the Clear Water Act, apparently isn't a problem, after all the Band is a victim of the mining operation, destroying native waters and historic land marks, and therefore should get special dispensation for it own failures to comply with the law. If you didn't recognize it, this the agenda of the progressive socialist Democrats everywhere in the country. 'Not me but thee'
 
Tribe Planning to Ignore Property Rights?
 
As mining protesters continue to claim the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine is trespassing on  public and tribal grounds, a native nation adjacent to the mining property has hired a wetlands expert to do a little trespassing of her own. 
 
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has allegedly hired a wetlands delineation expert to go onto private property without the the permission of the landowner.
 
Not so fast, says the company that owns the mineral rights to the land.
 
Because the property, which stretches from Hurley to Mellen across the Penoke Hills,  is regulated by the state's managed forest law, the landowners pay reduced property taxes in return for allowing the public to enter the property for five specific public purposes – hunting, fishing, hiking, sight-seeing and cross country skiing. GTac owns the mineral rights to the land and is providing security for the potential mine site. Attorneys for GTac have sent a letter to Bad River Tribal President Mike Wiggins Jr. telling him that sending the wetlands expert unto the land would be a crime. 
 
"Entry on GTac property for any other purpose (beside those permitted by law) will be deemed trespassing for which GTac will prosecute under both criminal and civil law," wrote Attorney Scott W. Clark of Ashland in a letter to the tribe last Wednesday. 
 
Wetlands have been a point of contention throughout the mining legislative and permitting process.
 
The Bad River tribe and other environmentalists contend the proposed mine will adversely affect the Bad River watershed and wash trailings and other mine-related refuse into the river and eventually Lake Superior. 
 
Bob Seitz, a spokesperson for GTac, said the mining company invited the tribes on a tour of the drilling sites and potential mine this past spring. He added they would gladly show them the bulk sampling sites. 
 
"We've had the DNR and Army Corps of Engineers out here three times to ensure we are not samping in any wetland areas," Seitz said. 
 
The Bad River tribe describes the river as essential to their way of life and history. 
 
Yet, the trespassing controversy comes as the Bad River band is struggling with water quality issues of their own making. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a compliance plan requiring the Bad River Band of Lake Superior and Chippewa Indians to correct Clean Water Act violations at the wastewater treatment facilities located on the Tribe’s northern Wisconsin reservation.
 
This June, masked eco terrorists stormed the mine site, damaged company equipment and assaulted a GTac worker. One woman has been charged with a felony for the incident and local law enforcement are still looking for others involved in the attack.
 
Seitz says trespassing concerns are warranted. 

"This (GTac mine site) is private property that they just can't come on," Seitz continued. "We have security out here and we're very concerned that some of the protesters who are in black masks could walk around with sledgehammers and say they are just hiking. The next thing you know, they'd be destroying our equipment." 
 
The mining company has not involved the Iron County Sheriff's Department in this latest incident. 
 
The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa could not be reached for comment and have not accepted GTac's invitation to tour the sampling sites. 
 

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