Duane Hicks
Representatives of Rainy River First Nations here and the White Earth Band of Ojibwe of northwestern Minnesota are expressing concerns that communities on both sides of the border are bypassing wastewater into the Rainy River and endangering lake sturgeon.
They’re calling for the elimination of such bypasses, as well as the development of comprehensive plans to ensure that aging infrastructures are upgraded or replaced.
RRFN Chief Jim Leonard said Monday that since March 23, he’s aware of several incidences of wastewater being bypassed into the river, specifically coming from treatment plants in International Falls and Rainy River.
“I also understand that the Town of Fort Frances is at capacity and they were contemplating discharging last week,” he added.
Chief Leonard noted during that time, nearly 200,000 gallons of untreated raw sewage had been bypassed from “outdated, antiquated wastewater treatment plants at both ends of the river”—a practice common during large rain events and spring run-off periods.
“To put it in perspective, I own property on the lake and if I tear up my dock and put creosote ties down there, the whole world comes after me,” he said. “If a logger dumps a couple gallons of oil into a creek, everybody and his dog [is after him].
“It’s the same thing with my septic field here—if I pump my septic field and dump it into Rainy River, I go to jail.
“But meanwhile, these large plants can dump tens and hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage, and nobody does anything,” Chief Leonard charged.
In a joint press release, Chief Leonard and White Earth Band chairwoman Erma Vizenor noted both parties have “staked a
partnership in preserving our parallel lands and culture,” and part of this partnership includes restoring the populations of lake sturgeon in their traditional waters.
“Our efforts are ground-breaking—the first partnership of its kind in North America,” the release stated.
“We have been assisted and applauded by state and provincial agencies, and the federal governments have started to take notice,” it read. “Yet we are still faced with obstacles that long ago should have been abolished.
The release noted it’s not been determined how such events can impact public health, not to mention the detrimental effects of fish and wildlife populations.
“Discharges of untreated sanitary sewage violate the federal Clean Water Act in the United States and the Federal Fisheries Act in Canada,” it said. “These acts should be seen as polluting the waters of the commonwealth.
“Sturgeon co-existed with dinosaurs and have survived centuries of cataclysmic ecological effects. Yet despite their resiliency through evolutionary time, they are particularly sensitive to habitat degradation.”
The release said research has shown that the first year of life is most sensitive to environmental change, and emphasizes the importance of the first year in establishing year-class strength among the sturgeon species.
“Given that the lake sturgeon is considered a species of ‘special concern’ in Canada and ‘endangered’ in the United States, we all must make our nest efforts to protect the species,” it continued.
“You just can’t continue to do this because it is killing fish,” Chief Leonard stressed in a separate interview.
Chief Leonard and Vizenor also said there is “an immediate need for remedial measures and specific deadlines for upgrading wastewater treatment systems in municipalities and counties on both sides of our border.”
“We are calling for the elimination of ‘wastewater treatment plant bypasses,’ and for the development of comprehensive plans to ensure that aging infrastructures are upgraded or replaced,” the release stated.
“Our local municipalities and counties will require significant assistance from state, provincial, and federal agencies to aid them in this matter,” it noted. “We are calling on these agencies, as well as the Stephen Harper government and Barack Obama administration, to make this issue a top priority.
“Hard economic times are no excuse to let our environment boil away on the backburner.”
Chief Leonard said both the U.S. and Canada have talked about stimulus funding for infrastructure work, and spending that money on repairing these plants should be a priority.
“There should be money there to start repairing these plants, and remodelling them,” he remarked.
