I’ve been trying to get smart about Financial Assurance (FA) because it plays a big part in the debate about sulfide mining in the Arrowhead. Basically, FA is a mining company’s pledge to the state that the company has sufficient financial resources to cover clean-up costs for as long as it takes to reclaim land and clean water affected by the mining.
In January, I joined some 3,000 others at a public meeting in St. Paul on sulfide mining. In February, I attended legislative hearings at the Capitol. Information and opinion presented there, as at the St. Paul meeting, came from a variety of sources: DNR, Polymet, tribal representatives, hydrologists, conservation groups, miners, unions, local governments, individuals who live near likely mining sites.
The more I heard in my effort to get smart, the more I was dumbfounded by mining supporters’ certainty that the technology and money necessary to clean up after sulfide mining would be there when we need it.
“When we need it” continues long after the mines have closed and the life span of the new jobs is over. Because sulfide mining produces corrosive acid destructive to land and water, the damage will persist. Estimates from both the state and Polymet agree that it could last for as many as 200 or even 500 years.
Among current decision makers, who can realistically project future costs? And, what institutions will exist then to oversee reclamation and clean the water?
If FA proved to be inadequate, who will be left to pay the bills? We will. Generations of citizens will pay if the mining companies go bankrupt, abandon the sites, default on permits and run out of FA funds. The mining track record in Minnesota as well as nationally and internationally is instructive.
So, to the 33 percent in a recent poll who are unsure about whether sulfide mining should be permitted in Minnesota, please join me in “getting smart.” Find out for yourself that you, your descendants, and your beautiful state could be paying the cost of sulfide mining, possibly in perpetuity.
Biz Clark
Poplar Lake/St. Paul, MN
Leave a Reply