BAD RIVER NATURAL RESOURCE (2016)

Fall

Common Ground

BAD RIVER NATURAL RESOURCE

2016

Bad River Community Meeting about

Pipelines on the Bad River Reservation

Photo Courtesy of the BRNRD. Photo shows section of Enbridge pipe laid on the Bad River

Reservation 1953.

Over 60 years ago pipelines carrying different petroleum products were starting to be installed in

pathways called rights of way across the Bad River Reservation. At the time, the Tribe and

landowners along the rights of way entered long-term lease agreements that allowed the pipelines

to be used for decades. Those leases are about to expire, which means the Tribal Council and the

Bad River community needs to decide whether to renew a new set of lease agreements. The three

pipeline companies include Enbridge Energy, Northern Natural Gas, and TransCanada’s Great

Lakes Transmission Gas Line.

This fall, Bad River Natural Resources Department (BRNRD) staff and the Tribal Council will

be hosting a series of informational meetings about the pipelines that cross the Reservation.

These meetings are specifically for Bad River community members so they can ask questions and

learn about the types of products in the lines, who owns them, why they are here, whether there

are risks, the possible future of the pipelines, the Tribe’s right of way lease process, and other

related issues.

(Continued on page 2)

Inside this issue:

Special Point of Interest:

Bad River Community Meeting….

1



Bad River Community Meeting about

Pipelines on the Bad River Reservation

Geospatial, Collaboration, Communication...

4



Wild Parsnip on the Bad River Reservation

Improperly Abandoned Drinking Wells..

5



2016 Flood Debris: Kakagon Sloughs

Indoor Air More Polluted than Outdoor Air?

6



Erv Retreats back to Nature!



New Conservation Warden

Out with the Old… In with the New

7

Bad River Community Meeting about Pipelines

on the Bad River Reservation Continued

By Lissa Radke, Environmental Specialist

(Continued from page 1)

The Tribal Council and BRNRD are analyzing fact-based

information about the rights of way, past leases, impacts and

risks, and other information necessary to consider whether

future right-of-way leases will be developed. These

informational meetings will be designed to bring community

members information that helps the community make the best

decisions for the future.

The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 15 at

6:30 PM at the Bad River Casino and Convention Center.

BRNRD staff will give an overview of the three pipelines, but

the main purpose of this first meeting is to listen to the

comments, questions, and issues that Bad River community

members have about these pipes. Future meetings to be

scheduled in January and February will focus on offering

responses to Bad River members’ comments, answer questions

fully, and offer opportunities to talk directly with

representatives of the three pipeline companies.

To help answer Bad River community members’ questions,

BRNRD is developing a web page that offers a wide variety of

materials including maps, factsheets, photographs, and other

handouts. Go to http://badriver-nsn.gov/tribal-operations/natural

-resources to download materials. We will be continually

adding to that site as more materials are available.

We’ll be sending announcements about all upcoming meetings

on the Tribe’s and Natural Resource Department’s web pages,

email, posters, and social media sites. You can request your

name and contact information be added to a new mailing list by

calling the Department at 715-682-7123.

NRD Staff Member is a Speaker at

National Tribal Conference

Save the Date!

Natural Resources Department Hosts

Open House on March 15, 2017

The Bad River NRD will host its fourth biennial environmental open house called “It’s Easy Being Green!” on

Wednesday, March 15, from 2 to 7:00 PM at the Bad

River Casino and Convention Center. This event is free

and open to the public including kids and adults of all

ages in Bad River and other communities.

BRNRD staff are planning fun and informational

programs and activities that:

 Encourage the community to learn what the Department is working on to protect resources on the Reservation

 Show how community members can get involved in

environmental protection on the Reservation

 Encourage kids and others to become involved in

environmental jobs and careers.

For more information call 715-682-7123.

(Flyer on back cover)

Page 2

(From left to right) John Prohaska, Bad River NRD; moderator Jane

Neumann, Second Wind Consulting; and Elizabeth Wakeman, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, a speaker on the same panel.

Recently John Prohaska, the NRD environmental compliance specialist, represented Bad River Band at the 2016 annual national

conference of the Indian Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)

held at Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut’s casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Representatives from over 200 tribal nations attended,

including Bad River.

John made a presentation called “Using Student Interns—Results

Today, Investment for the Future,” about his experiences hiring

interns to help him do his work in the environmental compliance

program. John also attended numerous sessions during the four-day

conference to learn about many aspects of hazardous materials

management, remediations (cleanups), toxicology, and other topics.

C O M M O N G RO U N D

Wild Parsnip on the Bad River Reservation

By Lorrie Salawater, Invasive Species Coordinator

How to Identify Wild Parsnip

 Grows up to 1.5 meters tall.

 The single green stem is two to five centimeters thick

and smooth with few hairs.

 Compound leaves are arranged in pairs, with sharply

toothed leaflets that are shaped like a mitten.

 Yellowish green flowers form umbrella-shaped

clusters 10 to 20 centimeters across.

Seeds are flat and round.

Wild parsnip is an invasive species that has been documented on

the Bad River reservation. To some people Wild Parsnip is a

beautiful flower that looks like a yellow Queen Anne’s lace.

Wild Parsnip likes to grow along roadways, savannas, pastures

and fields, weedy meadows, areas along railroads, vacant lots,

and waste areas. Wild Parsnip grows in many different habitats

but it will not grow well in the shade. It starts out as a small

patch but once it gets established it will rapidly grow to take

over an area in a short period of time.

What should you do if you see some Wild Parsnip on the

reservation? Call the Natural Resource Department and let us

know where it is so we can treat it before it spreads. 715-6827123 Ext. 1558

Wild Parsnip is a plant that looks pretty but it isn’t the kind of

plant that you want to touch. Once you come in contact with the

plant you should shower as soon as possible. If the sap on your

body comes in contact with the sun it will create sunburn. The

Wild Parsnip sap you can give you burns that blister and last for

weeks but the scars from the burns can last a lifetime.

2016 Bad River Flood Debris: Kakagon Sloughs

Photos Courtesy of the BRNRD

The NRD has continued to pick-up flood debris and address post-flood clean-up issues.

The project was funded through the BIA: Great Lake Restoration Initiative. Pictures

show some of the large debris that was pulled out of the Kakagon Sloughs. 500 pounds

of debris were taken out of the Sloughs on the day of the photos.

FALL

Page 3

Geospatial Collaboration, Communication, and

Coordination for Future Generations

Highlights from National Tribal GIS Conference 2016

By Suzi Smith, GIS Specialist

For the past seven years, GIS professionals across Indian

Country annually gather in Albuquerque, New Mexico to

exchange information and participate in interdisciplinary

dialogues. Representatives come from a wide variety of

backgrounds and areas of expertise, including industry,

academia, and federal agencies. Typically it is Tribes from the

southwest that have the biggest presence at the conference, but

it is constantly growing and becoming a source of inspiration

that guides geospatial programs across the country. This year

over 200 participants were in attendance, with good

representation from Alaskan Native Communities, Midwestern

Tribes, and, for the first time, a Tribal Historic Preservation

Officer from the East Coast (Narragansett of Rhode Island).

and analyze satellite imagery using web-tools and ArcGIS

software. Applications of remote sensing for natural resource

management and climate change assessment were also covered,

including: wildfire, water quality, vegetation health, drought,

and (of particular interest) flood applications. I have copies of

all the materials needed to complete all the exercises I

completed in this workshop, as well as the software. Anyone

interested in trying out remote sensing, even for the very first

time, can come to me and I’ll be excited to share this science of

seeing the invisible (you’ll find out what that means too).

NASA also runs internship programs focused on tackling a wide

range of real-world earth science issues through remote sensing

projects.

Location of the Conference

Every year, the conference is hosted by the Southwestern Indian

Polytechnic Institute (SIPI). It is a national Indian community

college and land grant institution. We are probably most

familiar with another land grant college, the Lac Courtes

Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC), of course.

LCOOCC and SIPI, as far as I know and I don’t claim to know

much, are the only two Indian community colleges that offer

certificates in GIS. Both colleges offer great opportunities for

Native youth to gain the hard skills they need to be employable

in technical fields, especially in natural resources conservation.

Native youth involvement in governance and resource

protection, through the lens of GIS, is always on the forefront of

discussions at our annual conferences. The setting, therefore,

constantly provides the appropriate context for our discussions

of the current state and future of GIS in Indian Country. While

focused on GIS, the conference is open to anyone interested, so

if you’d like to learn more about the Tribal GIS network and/or

gaining an education or training in GIS please contact me.

Presentations and Discussions

I won’t bore you with the details of presentations and

discussions (though they were hardly boring to me!), but some

of the topics covered included:

Workshops

The conference does not last for an entire week, but in the days

leading up to the opening ceremony we are not unproductive. I

took in two workshops this year, one on remote sensing and the

other dealt with ArcGIS Server. The remote sensing workshop

was taught by earth scientists who work for NASA, so it was

nice to get a refresher on satellite imagery techniques straight

from the source. The Landsat program is probably the best

known remote sensing platform managed by NASA, but other

satellites and remote sensing agencies were also covered. We

learned how to search, access, and download satellite data

products and imagery, as well as methods to visualize, interpret,

Page 4

- Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation records management

digitization and integration with GIS

-BIA Branch of Geospatial Support’s update on Indian lands

dataset (I’m keeping a close eye on this project)

-BIA Tribal climate resilience program, accessing and using

EPA’s geospatial portals

-an assessment of drought induced oneseed juniper die-off using

remote sensing and GIS mapping techniques on the Pueblo of

Santa Ana

-2020 Census partnerships

- maintaining housing demographics in the Sicangu Wicotti

Awaynkapi Corporation (by Rosebud Sioux)

-place name studies and collaborations in the YukonKuskokwim Delta region of Western Alaska

-Tribal need to map land based ceremonial stone landscapes and

submerged Paleo-cultural landscapes

Taking in these presentations and participating in discussions

brought valuable insight and diverse perspectives on projects

Bad River Natural Resources Dept is currently working on, as

well as inspiration for potential solutions for the future. If

anyone is interested in learning more about what other Tribes

are doing with GIS and thoughts on how that can be applied

here, feel free to drop me a line or stop by the office.

C O M M O N G RO U N D

Improperly Abandoned Drinking Water Wells

Should be Properly Closed

By Ed Kolodziejeski, Water Resources Technician

about 8’ underground. Over the years this well filled with

water, and if anyone were to fall in it would be quite easy

to drown as there was only a small opening enough for a

person to get in and all sorts of pipes, pumps and such to

get caught on.

Improperly abandoned drinking water wells are also often classified as Class V Injection wells, under the Underground Injection Control. This basically means that it is a well that can act

as a conduit for injection of non-hazardous fluid into the

ground. As noted above it can be used for illegal injection of

both hazardous and non-hazardous fluid.

Unused and improperly abandoned wells are a significant threat

to groundwater quality. If not properly filled with impermeable

materials (commonly sodium bentonite or cement grout), abandoned wells can directly channel contaminated surface or soil

water into the groundwater aquifers. Water that gets into abandoned wells bypass the purifying action that normally takes

place in the upper layers of the soil. Many thousands of improperly abandoned wells are threatening the groundwater in

Wisconsin.

How improperly abandoned wells can threaten groundwater

 Contaminated surface water can enter a well if the casing

pipe does not extend high enough above the ground surface

and the well cap has been broken or removed; or if there

are cracks or holes in the casing due to damage or deterioration with age.

 Contaminated surface water can seep down along the casing pipe of an improperly abandoned well.

 Open wells offer tempting disposal receptacles for liquid

and solid wastes (such as used motor oil). The disposal of

any pollutant or wastewater in a well is prohibited by State

Codes.

 Even artesian wells can function as conduits for contamination. If the pressure of an artesian system drops enough,

the flow may reverse its direction and ‘suck’ water or other

liquids down into the aquifer.

 There are also safety concerns when it comes to improperly

abandoned wells. Wells of a sufficient diameter can allow

for people or animals to injure themselves, by either catching a foot/leg or even fall in (in the case of small children).

There was an improperly abandoned well on the Bad River

Reservation that was down into a cement ‘box’ that was

FALL

The Bad River Natural Resource Department, funded by the

Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), began a Well

Abandonment Project in 1996. Of the 50 confirmed and identified improperly abandoned wells known by the Bad River Water Resources Program. 48 of them have been properly closed.

The method used by the Water Resources Program to close

these wells is to seal up the well casing with sodium bentonite.

Sodium bentonite is a clay, native to the Western United States.

When exposed to water the dried bentonite chips it will absorb

the and expand forming and impermeable barrier that will function even if the well casing were to corrode completely, which it

will eventually do over time. As a measure of safety all exposed well casings will also be cut down to below grade and

buried. In the case of the cement ‘box’ well mentioned earlier,

the space was collapsed using earth moving equipment and then

buried so that no one could fall in and injure be injured.

The above picture shows an example of an improperly abandoned well that has been allowed to deteriorate to a degree that

water is leaking near ground level. During time of flood, which

are relatively frequent for the Bad River Reservation, it could

allow contaminants to get into the drinking water aquifer.

If you have questions or have information about locations of

improperly abandoned wells you can contact Edward Kolodziejski at the Bad River Natural Resource Department. Phone

number :715-682-7123 x1565 Email: wrtech@badriver-nsn.gov.

Page 5

Indoor Air more Polluted than Outdoor Air?

By Daniel Wiggins, Air Quality Technician

Scientific studies have proven some indoor environments are

more polluted than any outdoor environment, which health concerns can vary from home to home, can be related to allergies or

asthma, and can cause cancer and even death.

Indoor air pollution is sometimes not contributed solely by one

source, but rather a combination of sources or factors. There are

a variety of things that can contribute to indoor air pollution and

is usually associated with sources that release gases or particles

into the air. It can be related to specific use of certain chemicals

and cleaning agents or traced back to a malfunctioning gasappliance, such as a furnace. Other issues can be directly related

to how the home was built or the deterioration of the structure

overtime. “Leaky” homes have a tendency of being less energy

efficient and may allow excessive moisture to enter, eventually

contributing to moisture damage and the development of mold.

Controlling or eliminating sources to minimize can improve

indoor environments; however, locating and identifying these

sources are not always simple. Reading labels and understanding proper usage of cleaning agents or other household chemicals should be done before use and may help limit some pollutants. Allowing an adequate amount of outdoor air to be introduced into the home can often avoid a build-up of many indoor

pollutants.

Other pollutants may be more difficult to control and may even

require a sort of testing to identify. Radon is naturally occurring,

odorless, cannot be seen, and may cause the development of

lung cancer. A test kit placed in the home is the only way to

determine the indoor radon concentration. Depending on the

recorded level of radon a home may require radon reduction

system to be installed to lower the levels. Other pollutants, such

as carbon monoxide are also odorless, cannot be seen, and can

cause death. Maintaining and understanding the proper usage of

gas appliances can help avoid a build-up of CO and CO detectors are important in every home and building to avoid being

present during threshold levels.

Methamphetamine usage has brought to light additional indoor

air issues. Previous homes used as “meth labs” or from the “use

of methamphetamines “ may still contain residues and chemicals that can contribute to indoor health concerns if breathed in

or com in contact with.

Health effects associated with certain pollutants are more difficult to pin point . With multiple household chemicals being

present in today’s homes, along with each person reacting differently to certain pollutants, establishing precise concentrations

related to the development of certain symptoms are drastically

harder to determine. Regular wheezing, colds, and irritation of

asthma can often be signs of elevated pollutants. It is important

to notice time and place of symptoms and if they lessen or go

way once leaving the home.

Not all indoor pollutants will be noticed immediately, which

exposure to some pollutants overtime can contribute to cancers,

respiratory illness, or heart disease. This is why it is important

to identify pollutants, such as radon. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has this and additional information that can be found related to IAQ, at

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/index.html. Information can also be

found on the Bad River Tribes website at http://www.badrivernsn.gov/tribal-operations/natural-resources/nrd/air-nrd.

FREE RADON TESTING

to Begin in January!!!

Radon does cause lung cancer and can be prevented if addressed properly. The Tribal Air Office offers free radon testing and

IAQ monitoring services every year. It is easy and takes a very short period of time to test your home. If you would like to

schedule testing please use the contact information below and set a date to test your home.

Daniel Wiggins, Air Quality Technician

72682 Maple Street

Odanah, WI 54861

Phone: 715-682-7123 ext. 1553

Page 6

C O M M O N G RO U N D

Out with the Old...in with the New!

Erv Retreats Back to Nature!

Ervin Daniel Soulier is a Bad River Tribal Member and has now

retired as the Bad River Natural Resources Department

(BRNRD) Director of 30+ years and nearly 40 years within the

Bad River Tribe. Erv also recently retired as the Bad River

Tribal Judge serving both positions for many years. The NRD

Director is the personnel manager of the BRNRD and oversees

the Water, Air, Environmental, Fish & Game, POWTS, Leasing,

Wildlife, GIS and other technical staff. In addition, the NRD

Director may act as an ambassador for the Bad River Tribe,

many times scheduling, hosting and attending meetings with the

EPA, USGS, USFS, and many other federal agencies and

Tribes.

During his tenure as Director he has had to address a multitude

of tribal issues, which included: fishing rights for both tribal and

commercial fishing, forestry topics ranging from logging to

EAB, establishing and enforcing wetland and water resource

codes, Treatment As State (TAS ) or as Erv would have liked to

hear it called as “Treatment As a Sovereign Nation” for both

water and air, updating outdated hunting, gathering, and fishing

codes, mining in the Penokees, and the list can keep going.

With the many accomplishments and we must say some….very

little….ok no failures, Erv has always maintained strong view

points on tribal sovereignty and the responsibility of both the

Bad River Tribe and the United States Government to uphold

that sovereignty. Erv has represented the Bad River Tribe countless times and has been able to conduct himself respectfully

while being criticized and many times brought into the spot light

without choice. Not only has he spent nearly four decades

within the Natural Resource Department, but he has also solidified himself in the Bad River history books retiring as the first

Natural Resource Director. Erv will be missed…… well kind of

missed!!!

New Bad River Conservation Warden

Joseph Cadotte

Boozhoo, my name is Joseph Cadotte and I am a Bad River Tribal Member. I enjoy

working with, educating, and encouraging our Bad River youth to learn our beautiful

language, participate in our treaty rights, and learn our other traditional practices. I

have worked with the Bad River Youth Outdoors Program and recently transferred

from the Birch Hill Community House to work as the Bad River Tribal Conservation

Warden. I look forward to working with the Bad River Community. Migwitch!

Pictured from left to right: Robert Balnchard, Tribal Chairman, Joseph Cadotte, Bad River Tribal

Conservation Warden; Bob Wilmer, Chief Tribal Conversation Warden

FALL

Page 7

BAD RIVER NATURAL

RESOURCES

Bad River Natural Resource Department

Chief Blackbird Center

72682 Maple Street

Odanah, WI 54861

Phone: 715-682-7123

Fax: 715-682-7118

We’re On The WEB!

Www.badriver-nsn.gov

-MISSION STATEMENTThe Department strives for resource management which both conserves the natural resources for the

future generations and provide for the needs of the present. The departments existence reflects the importance the Bad River Tribe places on its right and ability to exercise sovereignty, self-determination

and self-regulation in the area of natural resource management.