Red Cliff Band Of Ojibwe Hire Contractor To Finish Report On Cold War-Era Barrels

A Lake Superior Band of Ojibwe is hiring a contractor to finish a report on the risks of 1,400-plus Defense Department barrels that were dumped into Lake Superior during the Cold War.

The Red Cliff Band has been working for more than a decade to remove some of the barrels, which were quietly unloaded by order of the DoD into Lake Superior near Duluth sometime between 1958 and 1962. The 55-gallon drums contain ammunition parts from the Honeywell munitions plant in the Twin Cities.

Two years ago, Red Cliff was able to excavate 25 of the barrels, but had to stop when they found 22 contained small but active cluster bomb detonators — 15,000 in all.

Now, they’re in the process of hiring a firm to complete a draft investigation report that could determine whether they’ll raise more drums. Tribal Project Manager Gary Defoe said that raising another 45 barrels will give them a good sampling, but he’s not sure when that can happen.

“At this point, that’s hard to say,” said Defoe. “We’re going to wait until we get the results back. We still would like to reach our goal of 70 and possibly get the chemical components of the propellant tested, for sure.”

Defoe said it’s hard to say if the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers will agree or if more funding will come from the DoD for the project. Regardless, Red Cliff spokesman Frank Koehn said they consider it their duty to protect Lake Superior.

“Red Cliff has a strong connection to fishing and to water,” he said. “Because it is in the Ceded Territory and because it is certainly addresses reserved rights (from the Treaty of 1842 with the U.S. government), Red Cliff is in an excellent position to make sure the resources are available for everyone.”

Koehn said that hiring a contractor to finish the report and get all the facts is the best way to protect Lake Superior.

So far, the DoD has paid Red Cliff $3.3 million to locate, remove and study the barrels.