Lake St. Joseph Plea:
Greetings Sam from NorthWestern Ontario Canada: I am writing to you to plead for help in creating awareness and exposing the inevitable destruction of our only drinking source: Lake St. Joseph. (Please see link below.)
This lake has a long sad history of polluting and destroying of its natural pure water and landscape because of Ontario Hydro flooding it for energy source. There are two dams that were constructed for the area mines back in the 1930s and 50s NOT for the benefit the First Nation. To this day they (the dams) still wreak havoc on the watershed in and around Lake St. Joe. (Long story...)
The newest and (in my opinion) the biggest threat to the water source is the iron ore exploration mine that is active right on the lake. There are two main islands (Fish and Eagle Islands) that the main iron ore deposits had been explored back in the 1970s and today are agressively being examined for potential mining by Rockex Mining. (See link.)
http://www.rockexmining.com/s/Home.asp
When I personally popped (unannounced) into the local Rockex office here in Thunder Bay, Ontario a couple springs ago, the gentleman I spoke with at that time seemed really excited when he spoke of and showed me on a map where they propose to build a dike from the islands to the main land to transport the iron ore. We are talking a huge dike where millions of gallons of fresh water will be pumped to make way for this "road". I don't even want to think of all the chemicals and deadly pollutants that will be involved in this mine.
This lake has many main river systems that incude the Albany River which runs into James Bay and also to Lac Seul to the southwest. This Root River diversion from Lac Seul was redirected to flow back to where it came from by Ontario Hydro for their financial gain. We are under the understanding that they broke international law and obviously natural law when they did this without batting an eyelash. (Another long story...)
My First Nation people and leaders do not realize the seriousness of the potential permanent pollution of this large fresh water lake and surrounding watershed. I have appealed to the leadership to put a stop to this mine and to consider the long term need for fresh water all to no avail. In fact, Band Councillor Masakeyash seems to be taken in by these mining companies by signing and selling out the land and water with no community consultation and direction. He has no consideration for the protection of land much less water. History shows that no matter how many MOUs and IBAs are signed on behalf of the community/reservation, there is no real financial windfall to stimulate the local economy. Large mining, energy and forestry corporations come and take the resources and leave us with polluted lands and water. The only ones getting rich at the end of the day are the shareholders and companies.
What is the famous saying about the cake and crumbs?...well we don't even end up with the crumbs but nothing but temporary ditch diggiing jobs and permanent damage to our land and water source.
Please, if you can't directly assist us in shedding reality to this demise of our fresh water, forward this email to someone who can help us bring awareness and action to protect our water source.
Kitchi Meegwetch (Huge Thank you) for taking the time to read my plea for help!
Respectfully and hopefully,
Marena Loon
Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation
