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| 11/28/2009 9:18:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | County commissioner: WICOLA request back to town board
by Nick Wognum
The future of a proposed $500,000 water quality project may be in the hands of the Fall Lake Town Board.
Looking for a sponsor, the White Iron Chain of Lakes Association (WICOLA) requested that the Lake County Board sign off on the grant application to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
At a meeting in Ely Nov. 19, three of the five county commissioners listened to pleas from WICOLA.
No formal action was taken, but at least one commissioner said the project should be sponsored by the Fall Lake Town Board.
Commissioners Rick Goutermont, Tom Clifford and Rich Sve attended the meeting at the Forest Service facility.
The two-hour meeting included a presentation on the merits of the project.
"WICOLA needs a sponsor for the project to apply to the MPCA for a clean water grant," said WICOLA member Larry Squillace.
He said the group has been doing water testing for many years but found out about a state grant for clean water protection one year ago.
Squillace said a number of meetings with different government agencies were held.
"We are not professionals in this area. We realize a need and desire to protect the waters but we didn't know how to go about it," said Squillace. "We have been collecting data and we knew other agencies were collecting data but we realized that data is not being shared."
Squillace said the grant would allow WICOLA to get a "historical perspective of the waters."
Fifteen letters of support have been written for the project, including one from Clifford, who represents Fall Lake Township.
WICOLA member Jim Pinckney said since the group's start in 1993, water quality has been a focus. From doing Secchi disk readings that give data on a lake's clarity, WICOLA has moved into water sampling testing for coliform bacteria, phosphorous, algae, pH and temperature.
Pinckney said, "With the clean water proposal, it's really an extension of what we're already doing."
Pinckney was also the first of many to say WICOLA was not anti-mining.
Two proposed mining projects, Duluth Metals and Franconia Minerals, have been test drilling in and around Birch Lake, which drains into White Iron.
WICOLA also established a "Mining Issues Team" that is looking at the Polymet project, where any impacts would go into Lake Superior.
"I have heard that as an association we are anti-mining or anti-development. This is absolutely not the case. We have taken no positions on these issues. We are concerned about them but anybody who lives in the area would have long term concerns about what could happen," said Pinckney.
He added that WICOLA has around 200 members and with an average of two people per household there are "375 potential opinions."
"I don't know (which) members have a problem with mining and members who don't, but as an association, we don't have a position," said Pinckney.
WICOLA member Ken Wichmann talked about his family's history that included working in mines on the Iron Range.
"To say I'm anti-mining is wrong. My family helped develop northeast Minnesota," said Wichmann.
"We have no litmus test for members. We have members who belong to environmental organizations and we have members who are business owners in the Chamber of Commerce and are very clearly for the mining projects being proposed. We are trying to put together a coalition of people," said Wichmann.
WICOLA member Ray Doran said there are waters in southern Minnesota that are not clean or safe.
"It would be terrible to see that happen in northern Minnesota waters," said Doran. "I think the partnership of WICOLA and the Lake County commissioners would be a natural. I would encourage you to act as a fiscal agent."
Squillace told the commissioners that it is more expensive to fix an impaired lake than to keep the lake from becoming impaired in the first place.
"The water in the White Iron watershed goes from the Boundary Waters into our lakes back into the Boundary Waters and up finally into Hudson Bay," said Squillace.
"The phosphates in one of our lakes are getting up to a condition where it is considered impaired," he said, "We need to find out what's going on."
MPCA Basin Planner Nolan Baratono said WICOLA is looking to apply to the clean water partnership program, which he said has been around for a long time.
"There are two components to the program, phase one is a diagnostic approach and the phase two is implementation. We want to look at not just what's wrong and needs to be fixed, but what's good and needs to be saved. After the first phase we would look at the development of a management plan for the watershed," he said.
"The advantage to us at the state is we get to partner with local folks who live there and care about it," said Baratono.
He didn't directly address the mining issue, but did say, "I'm not here to advocate for the program but there is no way in hell the governor is going to want to give them money to destroy an economy in the state."
Wayne Seidel of Lake County Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation District said, "We support the project because it's sound factual data to be gathered and from that data there will be a comprehensive plan where issues are addressed. If there were other things driving this, we wouldn't continue to be a part of it."
Clifford called WICOLA the most grass-roots organization in his district "so I just love to support what you people do. It became easy to write a letter to support any project you want to do."
He did warn that WICOLA will be "earmarked by the company you keep."
Clifford said WICOLA should be aware that when extreme environmental groups support the project, "that does have an effect on the county board."
Squillace said the group was not aware of the actions of the environmental groups. "Anti-mining, that's the furthest from the truth. We don't want to be one direction or the other, we want to be all about water."
Clifford noted that if the county board does not become the fiscal agent, the group could look to St. Louis County or a township.
Fall Lake Township Chair Mary Tome said, "I really appreciate the efforts WICOLA has done but I personally see no value spending a half million dollars to see what happened in 1700."
Tome questioned the need for the project and what the data would be used for.
"The management plan is something Lake County should be dealing with," Tome added.
Morse Township Chair Terry Soderberg also spoke, saying the proposed copper-nickel-platinum group mineral projects are something new to the area.
"This would be the first time there would be mining of this type," said Soderberg. "The MPCA should be stepping up to the plate. WICOLA shouldn't have to do anything on this. It should be the state doing everything and having these people helping, not leading."
Baratono responded, saying, "You need to talk to somebody with a higher pay grade than me. The state is not ignoring the responsibility but we're also looking at partnering with WICOLA to leverage money. I think for something as big as the mining issue it would be nice if the state took care of that but it's not in the cards right now. We don't have the money."
Tome said she realizes WICOLA can not pick its members. "But you let these organizations use the data to twist the facts whether you mean to or not. You know you have members who are anti-mining."
Wichmann asked how the group should discriminate. He said there has to be good faith that the majority of people will do the right thing.
Saying he was representing the mining industry was David Oliver of Duluth Metals, a company doing test drilling in and around the area to be studied.
"The reputation you have is not based on loose associations or casual associations, it comes from newsletters written by Brad Sagen, Carla Arneson, Bob Tammen and we even have a new film star here tonight, Steve (Koschak) in a new anti-mining film," said Oliver.
Oliver noted some of the strong anti-mining statements from Tammen, who was at the last WICOLA meeting on the proposed grant.
"Half of this crowd isn't part of WICOLA... which leads me to believe the crew tonight was hand-picked," said Oliver. "You have members who have written in their own newsletters very shortly after the last meeting... that they're going to form a watershed plan to stop whatever they're against.
"This is a surrogate plan to be used against (development). I'm not trying to be argumentative but everybody up here has said they're not anti-mining and looked at me. As Shakespeare put it, there were a lot of people protesting too much.
"I had no expectations this would be the tenor of this meeting but it was. And it wasn't without justification that people felt the need to make those comments," said Oliver.
Baratono said the partnership process has been around a long time and that the data will be collected in a way it can't be skewered one way or another, either in collection storage or interpretation.
"Somebody may have a grudge but we're not going to let them collect the data they want with our money," said Baratono.
Pinckney said WICOLA is painted as an environmental organization "since our goals are identical to what environmental groups 'care about.'" He added that mining companies should want to know if minor changes are detected in the watershed before they become major problems.
Ely Mayor Roger Skraba said he has heard Tammen say he doesn't trust the government's data. "Whether I like the Forest Service or the state, I trust them because it's empirical, it's true... I put my faith in our regulatory agencies."
Goutermont asked what WICOLA has discovered in 16 years of testing.
Baratono said for Garden and White Iron lakes, there have been changes from year to year but there are not trends.
"Our confidence in the numbers is not as strong for Garden Lake, the one with the higher pH readings," said Baratono.
Goutermont said the project should not spend money on educating people who live on the lake.
"That's all available to us right now. Everybody should know not to have fertilized lawns to the edge of the water. We don't have to look back 200 years to know that.
"I just look at the price tag of $500,000 and wonder is that how we should be protecting this lake. You can do a lot of projects with $500,000 where you can do more to protect the lake than just putting some data on a shelf," said Goutermont.
Pinckney said a potential donor for the project is the Royal Bank of Canada since the watershed ends up in Hudson Bay.
"I think what we're trying to do is more than just protect a chain of lakes. With this project we can expand into the entire watershed and we can potentially make a big difference," said Pinckney.
Sve said it was WICOLA who brought up the mining issue.
"You guys brought it up and threw it out there first and foremost. When I look at a project I like to stay within the boundaries of that project, not say well we've got mining over here and the environment over there.
"One of the problems I have is I was formerly a township supervisor before I messed up and got in this board. I find it hard to support something the township does not support.
"When you are a township supervisor, clerk or treasurer it's beaten into your head... you are the closest to the people, you are grass roots government. Personally I would want to see the township be on board and then make the project work."
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