Letter: A toast to Roscoe Churchill, grassroots activist

"Just grass over a grave" is what the late Roscoe Churchill -- pictured here at the "reclaimed" Flambeau Mine site near Ladysmith, Wis. -- called the reclamation by the Flambeau Mining Co., a Rio Tinto / Kennecott subsidiary. Churchill would have been 100 years old today. (Keweenaw Now file photo © Linda Runstrom, Winona, Minn. Reprinted with permission.)

From Laura Gauger*

Today marks the 100th birthday of Roscoe Churchill of Ladysmith, Wisconsin. Let’s raise a toast to this environmental legend!

As described in a February 2007 tribute written by Al Gedicks at the time of Roscoe’s death:  "Roscoe was the grandfather of Wisconsin’s grassroots anti-mining movement. For more than 30 years, this retired school principal, part-time farmer, former Republican, and Rusk County supervisor, along with his late wife Evelyn, were the heart and soul of the efforts to stop some of the largest mining companies in the world -- including Kennecott, Noranda, Exxon, Rio Algom and BHP Billiton -- from destroying the land and clean waters of communities from Ladysmith to the Mole Lake Chippewa Reservation near Crandon and from La Crosse County to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan."

If Roscoe were still living today, you can bet he’d be helping the good people who are fighting PolyMet, Resolution Copper, Back Forty, Twin Metals, Copperwood, Pebble, Tamarack -- and the list goes on. And you can bet he would have been in the middle of the recent GTac battle and would be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those who to this day are trying to hold Rio Tinto/Kennecott accountable for their misdeeds at Flambeau and Eagle.

We can also thank Roscoe and Evelyn for how "their discussions around the kitchen table with friends and neighbors led to the drafting and successful passage of the 1998 Wisconsin Mining Moratorium Law, known as the Churchill Moratorium Law within the environmental community, in honor of Roscoe and Evelyn’s key role in drafting the original legislation."

So, yes, a toast to this dapper gentleman who, "for as long as there was breath in his lungs, used his voice to speak uncomfortable truths to power and to inspire hope and confidence in the grassroots."  (For Al’s entire tribute to Roscoe, please click HERE.)

* Editor's Note (updated): The author of this letter, Laura Gauger (former Wisconsin resident and now of Duluth, Minn.), along with the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the Flambeau Mining Co. in January 2011 over the pollution of a tributary of the Flambeau River that is now on the EPA's "impaired waters list" because of high copper levels linked to the Flambeau Mine. She won in U.S. District Court, but the decision was later overturned on a technicality. The Court of Appeals did not dispute the fact that the tributary was polluted. Rather, the mining company was pardoned because the Wisconsin DNR had erred by not requiring the company to secure a federally-mandated permit that would have put limits on the amount of copper discharged to the stream. The tributary remains polluted to this day. Gauger and Roscoe Churchill co-authored the book, The Buzzards Have Landed! -- the story of the Flambeau Mine and their efforts to protect the environment. (See ad for the book in our right-hand column.) Click here to read about the court's ruling.

Letter: Embattled Great Lakes woman grateful for strong show of support

By Laura Gauger*

Laura Gauger paddling the Flambeau River. (Photo by Steve Garske of Marenisco, Mich., Oct 2011. Reprinted with permission.)

DULUTH, Minn. -- I stood up for clean water. I used my voice as a citizen. And now I am being punished by having to personally pay a substantial portion of a multinational mining company’s court costs.

That’s right. I am a citizen plaintiff in a Clean Water Act case against Rio Tinto, one of the largest mining corporations in the world. The case involved illegal discharges of pollutants into a stream at the company’s Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. For photos and official court documents, click HERE.

My co-plaintiffs and I won the case in U.S. District Court and exposed Rio Tinto’s highly touted "model mine" for what it is -- just one more example of how metallic sulfide mines always pollute. The ruling, however, was overturned on appeal, and now the court is ordering the plaintiffs, including me as an individual, to pay the polluter’s court costs. The bill is over $60,000, and my share is $20,500.

I am just a few donations short of paying off my share of these court costs awarded to Rio Tinto in the Flambeau Mine Clean Water Act case! Right now I am about $1500 short of my goal -- almost there! If you have not yet contributed, will you help put me over the top with a tax-deductible donation to my fundraiser?

I am completely OVERWHELMED by this huge flood of generosity. Truly, we have scored a victory on TWO different fronts in this lawsuit:

The first is a VICTORY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. The court case provided a means for exposing, under oath and with credibility, the serious water pollution problems at the Flambeau Mine site. So the next time the Flambeau Mine is held up by supporters of PolyMet or Twin Metals (Minnesota), Lundin (Michigan), GTac (Wisconsin), the Pebble Partnership (Alaska) or anyone else as an example of how mining can be done "without polluting local waters," you will have solid ammunition to use in the defense of your clean water.

The second is a VICTORY FOR THE "LITTLE GUY." Rallying the way you did to help me sends the following message, loud and clear, to Rio Tinto and other corporate polluters:

Enough! You cannot ride roughshod over citizens who are simply trying to protect public waters, and you cannot keep us down. We "little guys" watch out for each other, we have each other’s backs, and we are tenacious. You may as well give up on your latest mining proposals because we WILL ultimately prevail in this battle to protect the water and the "little ones" whose voices need to be heard.

What happened to me is an assault to all citizen activists. If polluters can get away with bullying even one person for trying to enforce the Clean Water Act, it will make it more difficult for all of us to protect our drinking water, lakes and streams. Not only will it have a chilling effect on the ability and willingness of ordinary citizens to speak up, but on the lawyers we need to help us.

To all those who have already contributed to my fundraiser, THANK YOU! And if anyone else would care to make a donation to help erase the last $1500 of my debt, please click HERE.

With respect and thanks,

Editor's Notes:
 
*Laura Gauger is a member of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council (WRPC) and the Center of Biological Diversity (her co-plaintiffs in the Flambeau Mine lawsuit). Ms. Gauger is formerly a resident of Spooner, Wis., and currently resides in Duluth, Minn.

For background on the Flambeau Mine Clean Water Act case, see our Jan. 25, 2011, article, "Updated: Lawsuit filed against Kennecott subsidiary for water pollution at Flambeau Mine site" and our July 25, 2012, article, "Court: Flambeau Mining Company violated Clean Water Act."