On Indigenous Peoples Day on the 14th, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved a permit for Howard Bros. Inc. to spread septage within the exterior boundaries of the Lac du Flambeau reservation.
This approval request has been contested in court for some time.
The tribe released a statement strongly condemning the move as “both a deep irony and a blatant violation of our sovereignty under the Treaty of 1854”.
The approval came on Indigenous Peoples Day, which the tribe says makes it “particularly tone-deaf and offensive”.
They said that the DNR failed to adequately consult with them ahead of time.
The tribe wants the DNR to rescind the permitting of septic land spreading immediately, otherwise legal action will be taken.
Here’s Araia Breedlove, Lac du Flambeau Public Relations Director.
“We can't just sit back and allow the stuff to happen,” she said.
She says that she can’t get into all the details because it is a legal issue, but that they’ve had complaints of odors from homeowners near there.
“It's not a way to live smelling sewer and dumpage like that, but also damages the land and that spreads because then that spreads to our waterways, and that impacts all of our lakes. We're in a huge chain of lakes and so damaging one source can damage many sources,” said Breedlove.
Adrian Stocks, DNR Water Quality Program Director, said they recognize the unfortunate timing of the approval and that it was inadvertent.
“That's not representative of the relationship that we're trying to establish and the collaboration that we want to sort of cultivate with our tribal nations in Wisconsin on a government to government basis,” said Stocks.
Stocks said that Howard Bros. Inc. is a responsible company providing an essential service that operates in compliance with best practices to protect human and environmental health.
“It was an oversight and unfortunate, but I really did think it's important to note that this updated site approval was done after conducting consultation with the tribes,” said Stocks.
He said that foul smells should dissipate pretty quickly.
“At the time of application, you likely probably could smell is happening, but it's not very dissimilar from what I think we see when, you know, farmers are spreading manure on fields, or that sort of thing, dairy waste, those types of things where, if it's done correctly, it certainly shouldn't last long,” said Stocks.
He said a spreading site wouldn’t be approved if they had an indication groundwater would be impacted, and said it should not be an issue.
Stocks said that he hopes this doesn’t spoil the relationship between the DNR and the tribe and that they intend to continue to have as much good consultation and input on all policies coming from the water quality program going forward as possible.
