Retrieving munition barrels from Lake Superior

As reported by Wisconsin Public Radio in January:

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe has been working for more than a decade to remove some of the 1,400-plus munitions barrels from Lake Superior’s bottom. Using grants from the Department of Defense’s clean-up fund, Red Cliff officials has pinpointed that most of those drums dumped a few miles northeast of Duluth.

In August 2012, an expert recovery team pulled up 25 barrels. Three of the barrels had melted munitions parts, but the other 22 each contained up to 700 ejection cups used in cluster bombs -- about 15,000 small explosive devices...

The dump area is in the ceded territory of Lake Superior tribes, giving them the right -- and, the tribes say, duty -- to protect that sacred area.

Photo credit.