Quarterly news from the MCEA Duluth Office
Welcome to this quarterly update from MCEA’s Duluth Office, with content tailored for our local audience. This newsletter provides additional insights into what we’re up to, how MCEA is thinking about the environmental issues that impact northeastern Minnesota, and how you can get more involved. Thank you for reading.
Pictured: MCEA Attorney Jay Eidsness at an event at the State Capitol.
What’s Going on with PolyMet? Status
The answer is “quite a bit, and also, not a lot.” Here’s a summary of what’s going on as of today.
The simplest thing to know is that the US Army Corps of Engineers revoked the PolyMet wetlands destruction permit last June because it would violate the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe’s water quality standards. This means that PolyMet is not permittable as proposed, and PolyMet cannot move forward. To regain this permit, PolyMet would need to either submit a new application and restart the process, or challenge the revocation in court. So far the company has not done either.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota state courts have remanded the PolyMet permits back to our state agencies to address flaws that have been confirmed through litigation.
At issue for the DNR is the bentonite clay “liner” idea (meant to reduce pollution in the tailings basin) that was the subject of a “contested case hearing” in front of an Administrative Law Judge. At the conclusion of that hearing recently, the judge recommended that the DNR deny the PolyMet Permit to Mine and find that the bentonite scheme is “not a practicable and workable reclamation technique.” As the Duluth News reported, the judge “said the method did not meet the state law because it would not make the slurry of crushed-up waste rock nonreactive and wouldn't prevent water from flowing over or through the waste upon closure.”
This is a big deal. It basically undermines the entire premise of PolyMet’s proposal to store polluted water in an unlined basin upstream of the Fond du Lac Band and Lake Superior in perpetuity. DNR’s appointed decision-maker will now need to decide whether to accept the judge’s recommendation. That decision may be forthcoming some time this year.
DNR must also address the “end date” issue on the permit, which requires determining when PolyMet will have entirely closed and remediated the site. MCEA and our partners have argued from day one that a “forever permit” does not comply with state law, and that there is no version of PolyMet’s proposal to leave behind a large waste-filled tailings basin that would be able to comply with our laws either. It remains to be seen how DNR handles that issue. There may be public comment opportunities at some point.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has multiple issues it must address before it could possibly issue a new water pollution permit to PolyMet. The agency must determine whether the mine’s groundwater discharges must be permitted, whether to grant the mine a variance from state groundwater protection laws, and how to address the issues with the water permit identified by the federal EPA (that the MPCA originally tried to suppress). We understand that, if and when these processes are underway, EPA will submit its previously hidden comments in writing.
In other words, lots of issues. Even the order of operations for the agencies is at this point unclear. It’s worth noting that Minnesota has spent millions of dollars on outside legal fees and thousands of hours of staff time pursuing a double and triple-down strategy of not addressing these problems. Let’s be clear -- it didn’t need to be this way. The agencies had, and still have, the power to stop throwing good money after bad, and start approaching these decisions from a public first perspective.
The now-halted PolyMet permits were issued in 2018. It has taken years to unwind these flawed decisions, and in our view the PolyMet proposal should at this point be considered all but dead. Minnesota can do better.
Pictured: Community leader speaking with our delegation in the Bajo Aguan, Honduras.
Considering the Challenge of International Solidarity
Perhaps you’ve heard the suggestion from the mining industry that if we don’t allow an unsafe and speculative mining proposal to find its footing in our state, it will happen somewhere else with fewer environmental protections. As you may’ve read in our statewide newsletter, MCEA traveled to Honduras last year to learn from communities directly about mining harms there. I’m really proud of this work and the step MCEA has taken as an organization to consider more deeply the international context of our work and the implications for the conversation here in Minnesota. We published a full-color report and photo essay about the trip on our website last week that I invite you to read and share. You can find two different layout options, including a “print at home” 8.5/11 version, here: Read About MCEA’s Trip to Honduras.
This week, we also delivered 62 copies of this report to legislators serving on environmental committees at the state capitol, with a letter explaining how we see our trip and report relating to the discussion in St. Paul. This is a complex topic with far reaching ramifications and we need a better conversation at the legislature. Our time spent with communities in Honduras was life-changing; it has helped us understand better what’s at stake in our mining advocacy in Minnesota and for communities around the world. You can read our letter to legislators here, and if you’re willing, please consider sending your own legislators a note and encouraging them to read it too. I would be grateful if you did.
Pictured: Senator Jen McEwen speaking at Boundary Waters Day at the Capitol
Thank you to Senator McEwen and Prove it First Authors
Partner organization Friends of the Boundary Waters hosted its Boundary Waters day at the State Capitol last week and Duluth was represented well. Thank you to all who attended and supported this event. We at MCEA want to extend a special thank you to Duluth’s Senator Jen McEwen, Chief Author of the “Prove it First” bill in the Senate. Senator McEwen gave the keynote remarks at the event, and as one of my Saint Paul colleagues in attendance exclaimed, “she was on fire!” As usual, Senator McEwen spoke powerfully about the need to protect our clean land and water in Minnesota, and the need to “prove it first” before sulfide mining is considered here in our state. Thank you, Senator.
You can read more about Senator McEwen’s Prove it First bill here. Please consider thanking her for this critical work directly. You can find all of her official contact information here.
Pictured: Jake Voit (left) and JT Haines (right) at MCEA’s Duluth office.
Meet a Colleague
I’d like to introduce you to Jake Voit, MCEA’s Operations Director. Jake joined MCEA in December of 2022, and as he puts it, his main job is to make sure our systems run smoothly. (Thank you, Jake!) It’s great when St. Paul colleagues spend time in the Duluth office and help deepen our commitment to the area. As it happens, Jake graduated from UMD and has family here, so you might well see him around. Please say hi if you do!
2024 marks both the 20th anniversary of MCEA’s first PolyMet comment and the 50th anniversary of our founding. Join us in Defending True North for 50th anniversary! As a 501c3 nonprofit, MCEA relies upon contributions to make this important work feasible. If you haven’t already, we’d love for you to join the ranks of our donors who are building a thriving future.