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Days later, and after dips in the St. Louis, Flambeau, Jump, Black, and Rib Rivers, the tour ended at the Menominee Reservation where participants joined a traditional pow-wow.
We’re floating on some of the rivers that Chicago's extension cord will cross," said Linda Ceylor, spokesperson for the grassroots group SOUL (Save Our Unique Lands). Opponents of the transmission line believe that much of the energy carried by it will be used to provide electricity to consumers far from the land it crosses and impacts.
According to the state Public Service Commission’s draft Environmental Impact Statement, the route of the 250 mile long power line makes 53 crossings of rivers, wetlands, and hiking trails from Duluth to its endpoint outside of Wausau.
Carrying 345,000 volts, the power line is the largest that can be built under state law. Six similar lines carry electricity in parts of southeastern and central Wisconsin but a project of this scale hasn’t been attempted in Wisconsin for nearly three decades.
The $175 million project is jointly proposed by Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service and Duluth-based Minnesota Power. The utilities argue that the new line would help ease power shortage and reliability concerns in eastern Wisconsin that first surfaced during the summer of 1997 and continue to linger.
For several months earlier this year, the utilities flooded northern Wisconsin’s airwaves with a series of TV ads promoting their power line proposal. Unmentioned during the ad campaign was the supplier of the electricity for their new transmission line – the Canadian utility Manitoba Hydro.
While many people see hydro power as clean and cheap, that’s not the view of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation of northern Manitoba. Vast areas of Cree Indian land have been submerged for hydro power development along the Nelson River system.
Ernest Monias, a member of the Pimicikamak Cree, came to Wisconsin to
join the River Awareness Tour. Says Monias: “We are trying
to get our story told south of the border. Our traditional navigation,
fishing, and hunting grounds are being destroyed.”
Unlike the deep canyon lands or valleys in this country that have typically been dammed and flooded for hydro power, the Cree’s lands are mostly flat, forested expanses. Lacking natural dikes and geologic barriers, the dams built on the Nelson River have flooded inordinately huge tracts of wooded back country.
The Cross Lake, Manitoba community, where Monias lives, finds itself gripped in cultural and emotional despair. He says the unemployment rate in Cross Lake is 85%. Many Cree are unable to engage in traditional hunting and fishing practices because of the vastly altered landscape. During the past year, a wave of suicides has swept across Cross Lake with more than 100 attempts in this community of 6000.
Rita Monias is a member of the Pimicikamak Cree’s women’s council. Explaining why she came to Wisconsin for the River tour, she says “we’d like to get a message across to the people that hydro dams destroy the land.” It’s been 23 years since the first dams were built on the Nelson River, notes Monias, and she says the Pimicikamak know from direct experience “how devastating it is on the environment, on the land, on the animals, and on the people.”
State Representative Marty Reynolds (D-Ladysmith) appeared at several of the rallies held along the route of the River tour. “Few places are more deserving of protection than right here,” Reynolds told a gathering of 65 people on the banks of the Black River in the Taylor County city of Medford. “We’re at war,” he added. “Wisconsin is at risk, our wildlife is at risk, our waters are at risk.”
Reynolds
expressed regret for not speaking up when the government and power company
came for the Pimicikamak Cree’s land. He vowed to remain silent no
more. “They can’t have our water, they can’t have our lands, and
they can’t have our rights,” Reynolds charged. “Today we draw a line
in the sand and we etch it in stone.”
The ultimate decision on the 345,000 volt transmission line project rests with the three state PSC Commissioners. All three members have been appointed by Governor Thompson, who has been outspoken and vigorous in his support for additional electrical generation and transmission capabilities in Wisconsin.
Each PSC Commissioner has strong ties to Thompson and all have contributed heavily to his political campaigns. Ave Bie, who chairs the Commission and who moved to her key energy post from the Division of Corrections, has given Thompson’s election efforts $1245 since 1991. (Bie recently made headlines for her attack on the Clinton/Gore administration’s energy policy during her speech at the Republican convention.)
Commissioner John Farrow has donated $2820 since 1991 (wife Margaret – a state Senator from Pewaukee – has given another $1750). The third Commissioner, Joseph Mettner, contributed $1380 to Thompson’s election coffers over the past six years.
Attorneys for SOUL filed a motion in July asking the PSC Commissioners to appoint an independent panel to judge the case. Ed Garvey, SOUL’s attorney, argued that the three Commissioners were biased and unable to make a fair ruling on the need for the power line. On August 3, the Commissioners rejected SOUL’s motion.
The PSC’s staff is currently reviewing public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement. Before the draft was issued, the PSC had received more than 10,000 comments from the public opposing the power line.
PSC staff will finish the final Environmental Impact Statement in the near future. Later this year, public hearings on the project are expected to begin. Along with SOUL, Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade and the Citizens’ Utility Board will present expert testimony at the hearings opposing the 345,000 volt transmission line.
