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flambeau mine

By staff

_Ordered to pay mining company’s court costs _

Duluth, MN – Laura Gauger, originally a farm girl from Wisconsin, has been saddled with a big bill from a multinational mining corporation. Gauger, now of Duluth, Minnesota, is a citizen plaintiff in a Clean Water Act lawsuit against Rio Tinto of London. The case centered on illegal discharges of pollutants into a stream at Rio Tinto’s Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. Gauger and her co‐plaintiffs won the case in U.S. District Court and exposed the pollution from the metallic sulfide mine. The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the decision late in 2013 and denied a petition for rehearing. Now the court has ordered the plaintiffs, including Gauger as an individual, to pay Rio Tinto’s court costs, totaling over $60,000.

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By staff

Madison, WI – The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and Laura Gauger filed a Clean Water Act citizen suit Jan. 18 against Flambeau Mining Company over its partially reclaimed Flambeau Mine near Ladysmith, Wisconsin. According to the suit, the mining company is violating federal law by discharging pollutants, including potentially toxic metals like copper, iron and zinc, into the Flambeau River and a tributary known as Stream C that flows across the company’s property.

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