For almost two decades Native communities, sportfishers, and environmentalists have together waged successful opposition to the Crandon mine, proposed at first by Exxon and then by Rio Algom, which is being purchased by the South African company Billiton. Data from the mining company itself indicates that contamination would affect the local groundwater for more than 200,000 years. The proposed mine would use up to 20 tons a month of cyanide, as well as other chemicals for processing the ore. The mine would also pump more up to 1400 gallons a minute out of the mine impacting not only the immediate mine area, but Mole Lake, the precious Ojibwe wild rice beds, and the Wolf River, one of the most pristine rivers in the nation. What's important is their way of life.
Water quality is part of their way of life and of ensuring our way of life.
It has not only brought together tribes with sportfishers, but environmentalists with unionists, and rural residents with urban students. In the spirit of Wisconsin's progressive and environmental traditions, they believe in 'people power, not corporate power'. The line is controversial because high-voltage transmission lines are considered dangerous, and because it would cut a swath through the property of over 7000 Wisconsin residents and diminish farmlands and forests alike. At present, NSP and it's affiliates purchase l000 megawatts of power from Manitoba Hydro moved through immense transmission lines to the south. That contract, the dams, and proposed transmission lines through northern Minnesota and Wisconsin are ecologically and socially devastating.