RON SEELY rseely@madison.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
ODANAH — Near the mouth of the Bad River on the Chippewa reservation here, the rice grows in thick stands and, late in summer, the healthy plants bend with the weight of the crop.
So it
was for generations also on the St. Louis River in Minnesota, where the
Chippewa of the Fond du Lac reservation near Cloquet enjoyed plentiful harvests
of rice, significant to the tribe not only as a food source but as a cultural
and spiritual legacy. In recent years, however, many of the rice beds in the
lower reaches of the St. Louis River have suffered what tribal elders and other
ricers say is a noticeable decline.
One
culprit, according to some studies, could be sulfate pollution. Sulfate is a
naturally occurring compound in rock, but when it is freed by mining operations
and released into lakes and streams, it is changed by a naturally occuring
bacteria in sediment to hydrogen sulfide, a pollutant that can kill plants.
Studies have also shown that the sulfide changes mercury into methyl mercury,
which can collect in fish tissue and is toxic to those who eat the fish.
In
Minnesota, mining critics have been quick to blame the huge nearby open-pit
iron mines and their mountainous piles of sulfate-producing wastes for the
destruction of the downriver rice beds. Now, tribal members at Bad River and
others worry their own rice beds could suffer a similar fate if a 1,500-acre
iron mine is built near the headwaters of the river in the Penokee Hills.
Officials
with Gogebic Taconite, which wants to build the $1.5 billion mine, say that
scenario is unlikely. They say they would store waste from the mine so such
sulfate pollution would be minimal.
On the
Bad River reservation, tribal members are less charitable toward the proposed
mine, even with the economic boost it could bring.
There,
the primary concerns are water pollution and possible changes in water levels.
Wild rice is extremely sensitive to both; a crop can be ruined if water levels
are too low or too high. The Tribal Council has voted to oppose the mine and
recently renewed that opposition in a State Capitol press conference and a
meeting with Gov. Scott Walker.
According
to Chippewa beliefs, rice is sacred, partly because it was the rice that
brought the tribe to the Great Lakes generations ago. The Chippewa originally
lived on the Atlantic Coast but migrated from there, seeking, as their prophets
told them, a land where food grew on the water — wild rice.
"This
is the whole reason our tribe is here," said tribal member Jake Deragon on
a recent boat trip to the mouth of the Bad River. "The wild rice ... I
bring my kids out here and teach them how to rice. I put moccasins on my boys
and have them walk on it just as our ancestors did."
Deragon
said he's against the mine because he believes it is likely that any pollution
from the open pit or the tailings will end up in the river and, eventually, on
the reservation and in the rice beds.
"Crap
runs downhill," Deragon said. "And we're downhill."
Unlike
Wisconsin, Minnesota limits the levels of sulfate that can be discharged by
mines and other polluters to 10 milligrams per liter to protect wild rice. The
standard, enacted in 1973, is based on studies of more than 200 Minnesota lakes
by John Moyle, one of the nation's most noted experts on wild rice. Other
studies confirmed his findings that wild rice becomes stunted in water with
sulfate levels higher than the standard.
Leonard
Anderson, a science teacher on the Fond du Lac Chippewa reservation near
Cloquet, Minn., has served on a number of government committees that have
studied sulfate pollution and wild rice. Though not a tribal member, Anderson
has harvested rice from the lower reaches of the St. Louis River for years. He
said the damage to rice beds is especially noticeable in areas of the river
below the mines where sulfate levels are as high as 100 ppm — largely, critics
such as Anderson say, because the state has not enforced the wild rice
standard.
"I've
been rice picking since 1954," Anderson said. "And I've seen the
decline in the watershed."
Curiously,
Anderson said, studies have shown that wild rice remains healthy in Pokegama
Bay on the lower river, a bay fed by Wisconsin rivers that have low sulfate
levels.
"That
should be instructional to Wisconsin," Anderson said.
The wild
rice standard in Minnesota is being reviewed by the state's Department of
Natural Resources because of challenges from both the state's mining companies
and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Both the companies and the Chamber, as
well as some Minnesota legislators, claim there is not enough science to back
up the standard.
But
Wisconsin scientists who have studied the connections between sulfate and wild
rice say there is enough legitimate science to justify concern. They say it is
a problem that should be considered in the context of any proposed iron mine in
Wisconsin.
David
Krabenhoft, with the U.S. Geological Survey in Middleton, has studied the
relationship between sulfate and grasses such as wild rice in the Great Lakes
region and sawgrass in the Everglades. He also said the potential damage to
rice beds by sulfate from the proposed Crandon mine was a potential problem
when that since-abandoned project was under study.
"I
would say you have to at least look at the potential for a problem,"
Krabenhoft said.
Bill
Williams, president of Gogebic Taconite, said sulfate pollution shouldn't be a
problem with the Wisconsin mine because iron tailings, or waste, would be
disposed of using a method called "dry stacking," which removes water
and allows the waste to be formed into hills.
Those
would then be covered with soil and vegetation so that sulfate-contaminated
runoff would be eliminated.
But such
assurances are met with skepticism by Bad River tribal officials. And last
week, the tribe received approval from the federal Environmental Protection
Agency to set its own water standards, including standards that would prohibit
upstream polluters — such as the proposed mine — from discharging anything into
the headwaters of the Bad River that would lessen water quality.
"Our
water quality standards are our Nation's proud proclamation of how we value our
waterways and wetlands," said Tribal Chairman Mike Wiggins Jr.