Northern WI, Lake Superior, "You stole our democracy, now you're stealing our water"

[annm4peace]

1. what will we do when our water is polluted ?

Earlier this year the Wisconsin legislature fast-tracked and passed a deregulation bill called AB1 – SB1 which gutted long-established checks on mining practices. Journalist and activist Rebecca Kemble follows the Penokee Hills mining issue closely and described the bill’s amendments in her February 2013 story for The Progressive:

These include allowing a mining operation to drill as many high-capacity wells as they need without regard to the impacts the wells have on drawing down water levels of nearby municipal water supplies or groundwater tables from which rural households get their drinking water. It also allows for the filling of a lake or pond that is less than 2-acres in size with mining waste and tailings piles, and eliminates the administrative law proceeding known as a contested case hearing from the permitting process itself.