At Michigan-Wisconsin border, enviros and tribes fight to keep new mine at bay

For years, Indigenous and environmental groups have been standing up against Calgary-based Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, arguing a rupture could harm the areas’s freshwater and ecosystem. And about 200 miles west across Lake Michigan, in the far reaches of the Upper Peninsula, a similar story is unfolding.

On Friday, nearly 300 activists and tribal citizens gathered on small Stephenson Island in Wisconsin — a stone’s throw from the bridge separating it from Michigan — in a joint effort to protect the river that encircles it.

Dale Burie established the nonprofit Coalition to SAVE the Menominee River to counter ongoing attempts by Aquila Resources to build an open-pit metallic sulfide mine near the water.

According to the Toronto-based mining and metals company, constructing the mine in Menominee County would produce significant amounts of gold, zinc, copper, silver and lead before eventually closing.

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/2021/07/17/at-michigan-wisconsin-border-enviros-and-tribes-fight-to-keep-new-mine-at-bay/