EPA to host meetings about Great Lakes restoration initiative
Release date: 07/16/2009
Contact Information: Phillippa Cannon, 312-353-6218, cannon.phillippa@epa.gov
(Chicago, Ill. - July 16, 2009) This summer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will host public meetings in each of the Great Lakes states to discuss the federal government's draft action plan for restoring the Great Lakes. The goal of this federal multi-agency, multi-year initiative is to address the most urgent problems affecting the lakes. EPA and other federal agencies have identified five principal areas on which to focus efforts:
- Toxic substances and areas of concern
- Invasive species
- Near shore health and runoff
- Habitat and wildlife protection and restoration
- Accountability, monitoring, evaluation, communication and partnerships.
More information is available on EPA's Web site: http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/glri
The schedule for the meetings is:
- Tuesday, July 21, Doubletree Hotel Milwaukee City Center, Wisconsin Room, 611 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, Wis. from 5 to 7 p.m. CDT.
- Wed., July 22, Metcalfe Federal Building, Room 331, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Ill. from 6 to 8 p.m. CDT. This meeting will be Webcast live at: http://epa.gov/greatlakes/live.
- Thursday, July 23, Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management Northwest Office, 8380 Louisiana St., Merrillville, Ind. from 5 to 7 p.m. CDT.
- Monday, July 27, CanalWay Center, State Boat Landing Room, 4524 E. 49th St., Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio from 6 to 8 p.m. EDT.
- Tuesday, July 28, Tom Ridge Environmental Center, Presque Isle State Park, Room 112, 301 Peninsula Drive, Erie, PA from 6 to 8 p.m. EDT.
- Wednesday, July 29, Radisson Riverside, FitzHugh Room, 120 Main St. East, Rochester, New York from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT.
- Monday, August 3, Kellogg Center Auditorium, 55 South Harrison Ave., East Lansing, Mich. from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT.
- Tuesday, August 4, EPA Mid-Continent Ecology Laboratory, Gitchee Gumee Conference Center, 6201 Congdon Blvd., Duluth, Minn. from 4 to 6 p.m. CDT.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2009
EPA Announces Public Health Emergency in Libby, Montana
EPA to Move Aggressively on Cleanup and HHS to Assist Area Residents with Medical Care
WASHINGTON - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P.
Jackson today announced the agency has determined that a public health emergency exists at the Libby asbestos site in northwest Montana. Over the past years, hundreds of asbestos-related disease cases have been
documented in this small community, which covers the towns of Libby and Troy. The announcement was made today at a joint press conference with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester.
This is the first time EPA has made a determination under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that conditions at a site constitute a public health emergency.
This determination recognizes the serious impact to the public health from the contamination at Libby and underscores the need for further action and health care for area residents who have been or may be exposed to asbestos. Investigations performed by the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry have found the incidence of occurrence of asbestosis, a lung condition, in the Libby area staggeringly higher than the national average for the period from 1979-1998. EPA is working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services, which is making available a short-term grant to provide needed asbestos-related
medical care to Libby and Troy residents.
During her Senate confirmation hearing, Administrator Jackson committed to review the situation at the Libby asbestos site based on current site information, sound science and EPA's legal authorities. As a result of her review, the Administrator has decided that conditions at the site present a significant threat to public health and that making a public health emergency determination is appropriate.
"This is a tragic public health situation that has not received the
recognition it deserves by the federal government for far too long.
We're making a long-delayed commitment to the people of Libby and Troy. Based on a rigorous re-evaluation of the situation on the ground, we will continue to move aggressively on the cleanup efforts and protect the health of the people," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson."We're here to help create a long and prosperous future for this town." She added, "Senator Max Baucus has been a tireless advocate for the people living in Libby and Troy who have confronted this public health tragedy for generations and we commend him for his work. We look forward
to working with him and Senator Tester who has been working diligently since being elec ted to the Senate to bring much needed support to these communities."
"Senator Baucus and Senator Tester have powerfully brought the voices of the people of Libby and Troy to Washington so the nation could hear and understand what happened. They refused to give up on finding the best ways to help those who have suffered so much. Today's announcement reflects our Administration's concern for the residents of Lincoln County and our intention to act decisively to protect and improve their
health and quality of life,' said Secretary Sebelius. "The Department ofc
Health and Human Services has been working closely with the EPA and the
residents of Lincoln County for a number of years to conduct screeningsc
and help provide access to care. Now, we have come together with Senatorc
Baucus and Senator Tester, Administrator Jackson, and agencies across
HHS, to offer a new grant to provide short-term medical assistance for
screening, diagnostic and treatment services in a comprehensive and coordinated manner in partnership with local officials on the ground in Lincoln County. "
Sen. Max Baucus, a long-time advocate on this issue, consistently sought out a determination of a public health emergency in this region. "This is a great day for Libby. This is a town that was poisoned by W.R. Grace, then had to wait year after year as the last administration failed to determine that public health emergency exists. But today is a new day," said Sen. Baucus. "Today is the day that Administrator Jackson did the right thing and made this vital determination. Today is the day that Secretary Sebelius declared that people in Libby will get the health care they need. Today is the day that after years of work we were able to succeed in getting this done. Yet, we won't stop here. We will
continue to push until Libby has a clean bill of health."
"This is a long-overdue, common-sense decision that will go a long way for Libby and the thousands of folks who were poisoned there," Sen. Tester said. "This decision will help make quality health care more accessible and it will open the door to get new resources on the ground. We still have a long way to do right by the folks in Libby. Working together with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency, we're making very good progress."
Secretary Sebelius tasked two HHS agencies - the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - to help county residents. These two agencies will support a new grant to assist affected residents who need medical care. Local officials are currently putting together a grant proposal that will lay out options for provision of medical care that will work for the residents of Lincoln County. HHS anticipates that this grant can be awarded in August 2009.
The Libby asbestos site has been on the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List since 2002, and cleanup has taken place since 2000. EPA has made progress in helping to remove the threat of asbestos in the land and air, and with it, the increased risks of lung cancer, asbestosis, and other respiratory problems. While EPA's cleanup efforts have greatly reduced exposure, actual and potential releases of amphibole asbestos remain a significant threat to public health in that area.
The Libby asbestos site includes portions of the towns of Libby and Troy and an inactive vermiculite mine seven miles northeast of the town. Gold miners discovered vermiculite in Libby in 1881; in the 1920s the Zonolite Company formed and began mining the vermiculite. In 1963, W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations. The mine closed in 1990. It is estimated that the Libby mine was the source of over 70 percent of
all vermiculite sold in the United States from 1919 to 1990.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/libby
R176
"http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/118324/"
Published April 22 2009
Duluth Metals acquires new mineral rights in St. Louis, Lake counties
Duluth Metals Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has acquired mineral rights that will enable it to explore an additional 5,142 acres of property in St. Louis and Lake counties.By: News Tribune, Duluth News Tribune
Duluth Metals acquires new mineral rights in St. Louis, Lake counties
By: News Tribune, Duluth News Tribune
Duluth Metals Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has acquired mineral rights that will enable it to explore an additional 5,142 acres of property in St. Louis and Lake counties.
The company already has documented the presence of what Duluth Metals Chairman and Director Chris Dundas called “one of the larger polymetalic deposit discoveries in recent history.” The company hopes to exploit copper, nickel and other precious metals in the formation.
“We had a major exploration program that was one of the largest in North America under way until recently, when this world financial crisis hit everyone,” he said. Like other companies, Duluth Metals has responded by slowing down its drilling program.
The new leases bring Duluth Metals’ mineral holdings to 15,283 acres, including 10,890 acres of surface rights. The company also has applied for additional state and federal leases that could more than double its current holdings, if approved.
In its latest round of leases, Duluth Metals acquired mineral rights to 2,528 acres from the state of Minnesota and an additional 2,614 acres from private landowners.
A map of the newly acquired mineral rights is available online at www.duluthmetals.com.
Duluth Metals aims to eventually develop an underground mine in the area but has not yet begun to apply for needed permits. Dundas said it would be premature to speculate as to a project timeline at this juncture.
RecentMPR Coverage of Mining issue
Brimson community concerned about DNR copper/nickel leases
Pam Thompson , Lake County News Chronicle
Published Thursday, April 02, 2009
Vickie Sellner, attorney, spoke about eminent domain issues in mining, and John Engesser, geologist and engineer, gave information from his areas of expertise.
Lori Andresen, Todd Ronning, Bob Tammen, and Kristin Larsen, area home-owners, were also available as part of the panel, to help sort out challenges and issues in this on-going debate. function
The Brimson area townships sit atop the Duluth Complex, a known geologic body of rock within which copper, nickel, possibly cobalt, palladium and other minerals are found. One of the many over-riding problems of Cu-Ni mining is the sulfide ore body mined. This is different from the current mining of iron bearing rock. When water and air touch the iron ore deposits and waste rock along the Iron Range, rust forms just as it does in a metal bucket we might leave outside by mistake over the summer or winter; when air and morning dew hit the waste rock from sulfide deposits, sulphuric acid is formed, which runs into the water tables and into all the adjoining water courses. It is well-known that our region straddles three water drainage basins; water moves from this region toward Hudson’s Bay, toward the Atlantic Ocean through Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. As we can see from the catastrophic events recently in the Red River Valley, humans have a very difficult time containing water from its natural flowages.For more information, pick up a paper at the Chronicle office.
http://jnabs.allenpress.com/jnabsonline/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1899/08-015.1
Journal of the North American Benthological Society: Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 717–737.
Downstream effects of mountaintop coal mining: comparing biological conditions using family- and genus-level macroinvertebrate bioassessment tools
Region 3, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1060 Chapline Street, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003 USA
Abstract. Surface coal mining with valley fills has impaired the aquatic life in numerous streams in the Central Appalachian Mountains. We characterized macroinvertebrate communities from riffles in 37 small West Virginia streams (10 unmined and 27 mined sites with valley fills) sampled in the spring index period (March–May) and compared the assessment results using family- and genus-level taxonomic data. Specific conductance was used to categorize levels of mining disturbance in mined watersheds as low (<500 μS/cm), medium (500–1000 μS/cm), or high (>1000 μS/cm). Four lines of evidence indicate that mining activities impair biological condition of streams: shift in species assemblages, loss of Ephemeroptera taxa, changes in individual metrics and indices, and differences in water chemistry. Results were consistent whether family- or genus-level data were used. In both family- and genus-level nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) ordinations, mined sites were significantly separated from unmined sites, indicating that shifts in community structure were caused by mining. Several Ephemeroptera genera (e.g., Ephemerella, Epeorus, Drunella) and their families (Ephemerellidae, Heptageniidae) were correlated most strongly with the primary NMS axis (r > 0.59 for these genera; r > 0.78 for these families). These same Ephemeroptera were absent and, thus, eliminated from most of the mined sites. Total Ephemeroptera richness and relative abundance both declined with increasing mining disturbance. Several other metrics, such as richness, composition, tolerance, and diversity, clearly discriminated unmined vs mined sites. Most family-level metrics performed well and approximated the strength of genus-based metrics. A genus-based multimetric index (MMI) rated more mined sites as impaired than did the family-based MMI. Water-quality variables related to mining were more strongly correlated to NMS axis-1 scores, metrics, and MMIs than were sedimentation and riparian habitat scores. Generally, the correlations between the genus-level MMI and water-quality variables were stronger than the correlations between the family-level MMI and those variables. Our results show that mining activity has had subtle to severe impacts on benthic macroinvertebrate communities and that the biological condition most strongly correlates with a gradient of ionic strength.
Received: January 17, 2008
Accepted: May 19, 2008
For complete paper click here
Non Ferrous Mining The Economic Role of Metal Mining in Minnesota: Past, Present, and Future SEE REPORT HERE
Feb 18, 2009
Sulfide mining legislation unveiled, will protect Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams from toxic pollution
ST. PAUL, MN – A bill to be introduced tomorrow would be a major step in protecting Minnesota’s taxpayers and lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater from the damages of sulfide mining proposed in the heart of the state’s prized lake country.
Sulfide mining is new in Minnesota, but elsewhere in the country it has polluted water with acid mine drainage and left taxpayers responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in clean-up costs when mining companies have filed for bankruptcy and abandoned their polluted mines.
Now, with sulfide mining companies seeking permits from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and exploration for more sulfide mines occurring throughout the Arrowhead region, laws are needed to protect Minnesotans from problems experienced in other states.
The “Safe Mines to Protect Our Water” legislation, introduced by Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) and Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan) would ensure that mining companies are required to provide sufficient financial assurance to the state and that their mines are clean and non-polluting when mining is done.
“Mining needs to be a sustainable enterprise,” said Carlson. “We need to make sure sulfide mines will be good neighbors in Minnesota, providing jobs while protecting our prized waters and our state’s hardworking taxpayers.”
While other states have passed similar legislation only after experiencing the devastating effects of sulfide mining disasters, Minnesota has a chance to lead on the issue, preventing problems before they occur.
The legislation would not be a moratorium on sulfide mining. It seeks to ensure that mining is done right and that mines are modern, model operations that will not leave a legacy of pollution or expensive clean-up bills for taxpayers.
“We have a duty to future generations to pass on to them our lakes, rivers and streams as clean and safe as we have enjoyed them,” said Hausman. “If the legislature does not pass this law, our children and grandchildren might not be able to enjoy the fishing, canoing and other pastimes that are cherished Minnesota traditions.”
Without protective standards in place, mine waste from sulfide mines could be a toxic problem for hundreds of years. Acidic runoff loaded with toxic metals would threaten the neighboring lakes, rivers and streams of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Lake Superior watersheds.
The legislation is supported by the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, which considers unsafe sulfide mining to be one of the biggest threats to the treasured Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The issue is also a priority for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, a coalition of more than 80 nonprofit conservation and environmental organizations committed to protecting and restoring Minnesota’s Great Outdoors.
Mary Marrow, Staff Attorney
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
651-223-5969; mwmarrow@mncenter.org
Engineers to inspect 3 state dams for waste ash
DAVID SHAFFER, Star Tribune
Three Minnesota dikes that hold vast amounts of coal waste
ash will be inspected by state engineers in light of the
disastrous ash sludge spill last month in Tennessee, State
Dam Engineer Jason Boyle said.
The dikes, which are 18 to 50 feet high and classified as
dams, are at three large coal-fired power plants near
Becker, Cohasset and Hoyt Lakes. The dikes enclose ponds
filled with wet ash left over from burning coal and
containing lead, mercury and other compounds.
State regulators and the dams' owners, Xcel Energy and
Minnesota Power, said the dikes and ponds have not caused
environmental problems. And the Minnesota dikes are made of
stronger earth fill -- not ash. Click Here for more
The videos below are of a recent program put on by the Duluth Izaak Walton League. They explore the issue of Non Ferrous mining.
Why is land proposed to be sold from the Superior National Forest to Polymet?
What are the implications of the less stringent protections of Federal, State and County controlled lands - compared with the protections offered by this deed?
Jim Sanders of the US Forest Service in Duluth, when asked about this issue states :
This particular deed language is "part of the position the Forest Service has taken on this property, based on the current deed a strip mine on this particular property could not proceed. Based on our interpretation of the deed a deep mine (tunnel mine) could proceed as long as the surface was maintained. The company does not agree with this interpretation. We (PolyMet & Forest Service) have agreed to pursue a land exchange in an attempt to resolve this difference of opinion and now with the Legislation, HR 4292, there may be a second option. If neither of these options are successful, I expect the company and Forest Service will be in court over the interpretation of the deed."
As for other properties where the surface and minerals are under separate ownerships, each is a case-by-case evaluation based on the deed when the two were separated. So there is no universal approach to this concern given the separation of the surface and mineral ownerships. "
Jim Sanders, Forest Supervisor
Superior National Forest
8901 Grand Ave. Place
Duluth, MN 55808
Phone: 218-626-4302
Fax: 218-626-4396
e-mail: jsanders01@fs.fed.us
See Page 69 Deed (all pages may be downloaded and magnified)
The Friends of the Cloquet Valley State Forest has read other commentaries on the issue of the possible lawsuit indicating that Polymet's case had little merit and their only avenue is to secure a political solution.
By Ron Way | Monday, Oct. 6, 2008
As the date nears for a long-anticipated release of perhaps the most important environmental document in Minnesota's mining history, political wrangling has stepped up over concerns about the effects of copper-nickel mining on ground and surface water in a region world famous for the quality of its forested lakes and streams.
The latest flare-up grew out of a seemingly benign request by State Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, for an independent review of whether state laws and regulations are sufficient to ensure that a major new industry — potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — will protect water from sulfides and other toxics brought up with every ounce of copper, nickel, palladium, gold and trace minerals buried in the ancient lava rock of Minnesota's Arrowhead.
Anderson, who chairs the Senate Environment Finance Division, requested $150,000 from the "emerging issues account" of the Legislative Citizens Committee on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) for a review of state laws with a report to be made to her committee and the House counterpart, chaired by Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis.
But while there was some initial support for Anderson's request by LCCMR members, the opposing response from Iron Range legislators was fast and, to Anderson, a bit more furious than she expected. State Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said in a letter the day after Anderson made the study request that Anderson was attempting an "11th hour … end run around the process" for reviewing potential effects of the planned mining.
Rukavina's position supported by Iron Range lawmakers
Rukavina made it clear in the letter and in an interview that Anderson's request should be denied. He's supported by all eight Iron Range legislators, all DFLers, who co-signed his letter or, in the case of Rep. Tony Sertich of Chisholm, sent a separate letter to LCCMR.
"This is a policy issue and not something for citizens to decide," fumed Rukavina, a veteran legislator known for his acerbic wit and unswerving advocacy for economic development of the Iron Range.
Rukavina believes that Minnesota's laws and environmental regulations will adequately protect against any potential damage from copper-nickel mining. But critics are less certain.
"I'm a little surprised by the tone of this, and the suggestion that everything's fine," Anderson told the LCCMR at a recent meeting. "Given history of this kind of mining in other places, we don't want to have problems here."
That is central to concerns raised by environmental advocates and some residents in the area of the planned mines, who say that in every previous case of copper-nickel mining there have been problems, some costing states hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up after mining companies left.
Wisconsin has banned sulfide mining
Neighboring Wisconsin has banned sulfide mining until it can be shown that the industry can safely operate anywhere in North America for at least 10 years.
Metals in ore bodies like the vast Duluth Complex — which runs diagonally through the Arrowhead — form around sulfides that, when the ore is brought to the surface, can combine with air and water to form sulfuric acid, which is deadly to fish and other aquatic life.
A related problem is the massive quantity of rock that's removed to get to the metals. Less than a percent of the ore is mineralized, meaning that for every ton of mined metal there are 99 tons of waste rock containing small amounts of sulfides. The sulfides will remain in piles long after mines are exhausted and could leach into the ground and surface waters.
The sheer size of the ore body gives scope to the potential future problem. MiningMinnesota, an advocacy group for the emerging "nonferrous" mining industry, estimates that 4 billion tons of precious metals are in the Duluth Complex, which would make it the largest such ore body in the United States and the fourth largest in the world.
Up to 400 billion tons of waste rock
Fully developed, mining operations would result in some 300 to 400 billion tons of waste rock scattered across the mining region (some plans call for underground mining, which would reduce surface rock storage by about half).
"The more informed one gets about copper mining, the more one learns not to trust the industry and to fear the scale and persistence of its pollution," said Clyde Hanson of Lutsen, Minn., a co-chair of the Sierra Club's "Mining Without Harm" campaign.
Mining advocates, like Ernie Lehman of Franconia Minerals, agrees that the mining industry does not have a good track record. However, he says, there are new technologies in place to protect from the harmful effects of sulfides and, he adds, Minnesota has some of the world's toughest environmental rules in the world.
"If it can't be done right in Minnesota," Lehman says, "It can't be done right anywhere."
Which goes to Rukavina's point.
Besides, Rukavina adds, he thinks metro-area legislators like Anderson and Wagenius should worry about effects like "all that development I see around the Twin Cities where there once were farm fields and now there's fast food places and big homes on three-acre lots with septic tanks — talk about a groundwater problem!"
What is 'doing it right'?
"Doing it right" is the watchword in the expanding debate over copper-nickel mining.
"If it can't be done right, it shouldn't be done at all," says the influential Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, one of the Iron Range legislators who signed on to Rukavina's letter.
But there's hardly agreement what "doing it right" means.
To Anderson and Wagenius, it is ensuring that environmental laws and rules sufficiently protect water resources, and that mine land reclamation laws protect the state's financial interests for as long as the waste rock piles pose a threat — and that could be a very, very long time.
Which is why Anderson wants the independent review of the laws.
To Rukavina and Bakk it means following existing Minnesota laws and environmental rules of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) which, the mining advocates insist, are adequate to protect against present and future threats from mining.
They say a review of laws isn't needed, and they cite statements by DNR and MPCA officials who, the legislators say, apparently agree with their view. Besides, says Rukavina, the current environmental impact statement (EIS) that's nearing completion is supposed to address any shortcomings in resource-protection laws.
Watching the EIS
That's among the reasons so many are watching the EIS on the first mine to open, by Vancouver-based PolyMet, whose processing operation will be in the closed LTV Steel plant near Hoyt Lakes. The long-awaited draft EIS by DNR is now due sometime in November.
A 45-day public comment period on the EIS, together with the preparation of the final document based on the comments, will occur when the Minnesota Legislature is in session. And it's there where the Iron Range clash with what they call "metro legislators" may burst more prominently onto the public stage.
The controversy has elements present in the 1970s when then-Rep. Don Fraser of Minneapolis headed an effort for wilderness designation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), and he encountered bitter opposition from Iron Range DFLers. The wilderness was created, but the Rangers derailed Fraser's 1978 bid for the U.S. Senate.
PolyMet says hundreds of construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs would come with its $380 million mine, boosting a Northeast Minnesota economy wracked by a downturn in logging and a historic fall-off in iron mining jobs. The company says it hopes to begin mining operations within six months of the EIS release, but that may be optimistic.
Challenges are expected
With so much at stake, challenges are likely both to the EIS and to the several state and federal environmental permits the company must get.
A major issue will revolve around the financial assurance the mining companies will make to protect mine lands after the ore body is exhausted.
As well, the company needs title to the very land it needs for its pit. The U.S. Forest Service owns the land and the needed land-transfer process could take up to two years.
To shorten the time frame and to avoid added environmental review, PolyMet sought help from Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, and Rep. James Oberstar, who introduced legislation to force a land sale. But their attempt was thwarted before Congress left town on Sept. 24, and another attempt won't occur until next year. Given strong opposition to the move by the Minneapolis-based Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and a collection of other environmental advocates, passage of the amendment is by no means certain.
"We are also pursuing a regular land transfer with the Forest Service," said LaTisha Gietzen, a Polymet vice president. Gietzen said that the long delays the company has encountered are "becoming frustrating," but that the company remains hopeful that its mine will open sometime next year.
Several companies are in the queue
PolyMet and its investors aren't the only ones who are watching the EIS process unfolding at the DNR. A half-dozen other mining companies are in the queue to begin operations within several years, and the permitting process for PolyMet is seen as a template for those that follow.
Next up is likely Franconia Minerals of Spokane, Wash.; it's currently prospecting with test holes in the area of Birch Lake in the BWCA watershed (PolyMet's operations are in the Lake Superior watershed). Lehman says Franconia sees a $620 million underground operation, with 550 permanent jobs, to begin in 2011.
In a mining operation, waste rock is removed and stored in massive piles over sealed liners and, later, covered to prevent any of the inevitable sulfuric acid from draining into surface or groundwaters. Metallic ore is sent to crushers with small quantities of copper, nickel, palladium platinum, cobalt and gold drawn out in a chemical flotation process, with waste "tailings" dumped into a large basin.
The remaining ore contains 15 percent metal that, along with its sulfides, is sent to an "autoclave" that adds pressure and heat (provided by sulfur in the ore) to produce nearly 100 percent metal, most of which is formed into 4-by-6-foot plates (powdered gold is bagged) for shipment to processors. Residue from the autoclave is neutralized with lime; it becomes gypsum that will initially be put into landfills but may be further processed into wallboard for use in building construction.
It's seldom as neat as all that.
Sometimes companies leave town — and cleanup costs
At a legislative hearing last January David Chambers, with the Center of Science in Public Participation http://www.csp2.org/ of Montana, told of cases where bankrupt companies in the boom-bust world of hard-rock mining left states with a very costly cleanup. One was the Summitville gold mine, whose mess cost Colorado more than $200 million to correct; the company paid only $4.5 million.
Minnesota has special "nonferrous mining" rules that require companies to put upfront cash for reclamation and environmental protection and to annually review whether the amount is enough. The challenges are to make certain the financial commitment is binding, the cash is readily available in the event of a rapid shutdown or catastrophe, and the cash is enough to cover foreseeable events that, it turns out, are difficult to foresee.
PolyMet says it favors insurance, but critics say that in bankruptcy or contested cases insurance money is hard to get. Environmental advocates favor a "non-expiring letter of credit" they say is the most direct avenue to emergency cash, but it's still uncertain how much money should be put up.
The LCCMR will meet in November to consider Anderson's request for the review of Minnesota's environmental laws and rules for nonferrous mining.
Ron Way, a former reporter for several Midwest newspapers, covers the environment and energy issues. He can be reached at rway [at] minnpost [dot] com.
