Conservative Group Says Tribe Violated Clean Water Act

A conservative non-partisan group is accusing the Bad River Tribe of federal water violations.

This report from a group called Media Trackers comes on the day before the full state senate vote on an environmentally controversial iron ore mining bill. It says the Bad River Tribe is guilty of “massive Clean Water Act violations” at its wastewater treatment plant.

Bad River has championed protecting Lake Superior from a proposed open-pit iron ore mine in the nearby Penokee Hills.

Bad River Tribal Chairman Mike Wiggins says they self-reported violations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and have invested $1.6 million in the past two years to fix those violations.

“That’s far different than dealing with groundwater aquifer poisoning and sulfuric acid mine drainage that we stand opposed to. The linkage that is trying to be made for political gains here on the mining issue is absolutely sickening.”

In an emailed response to Wisconsin Public Radio, the EPA says they have been working with Bad River to improve operations at the wastewater plant. While still not in full compliance, they say discharge quality has improved and violations have been resolved.

Media Trackers spokesman Brian Sikma in Milwaukee says the release of their report is not politically timed.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the past couple of days that all this information became available through the Freedom of Information requests and the EPA finally confirmed some of the data to us. So the scheduling is simply a matter of trying to get to the bottom here and dealing with government agencies that were taking their time in getting back to us.”

Whether it was politically motivated or not, Republican State Representatives Erik Severson and John Klenke put out a news release citing the report and touting the iron ore mining legislation.