Clouded Waters

"Susan B. Ellingson (SB to those who know her) publishes a struggling newspaper with the help of a retired librarian. Near the mining town of Iron, Minnesota, waters split three ways along the Laurentian Divide, carrying minerals and contaminants to Hudson's Bay, the Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico. When a corporation seeks a permit to dig for copper and nickel and store potentially harmful mining waste nearby, locals divide into pro-mining and clean water camps. SB commits to covering the story, even as she wrestles with financial stress and painful personal issues. Her mother-in-law leads a group of Ojibwe and Mâetis grandmothers fighting to protect the water. SB's dead wife lingers in spirit. Their children have grown and left home, and SB's Labrador provides sweet but insufficient company. When an intriguing new woman comes to town, SB isn't sure how to feel or act. After a fiery environmentalist informs her that a local water scientist has gone missing, she and her colleague follow a trail of evidence from a tiny, off-grid community into a global tangle of lies, corruption, whistleblowing, and danger"--