In a major victory for keeping copper-sulfide mining out of Minnesota, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has stayed (suspended) the PolyMet’s Permit to Mine. Significant post-permitting issues, namely the dam that failed in Brazil is similar to PolyMet’s dam design and that Glencore will be the actual mining operator and is not a permittee, led to the decision.
On October 23, the Minnesota Court of Appeals will hold a hearing on these matters.
In early September, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and partners, sued to protect Minnesota’s wetlands from PolyMet. Though they may not be as photographed as mountains or rivers, wetlands play a critical part in the overall health of an ecosystem. Wetlands are carbon sinks and one of the most potent ways of sequestering carbon. In fact, they hold a disproportionate amount of land-based carbon. According to a 2016 study, researchers found that wetlands in the United States store a total of 11.52 petagrams of carbon.
This is about equal to four years of U.S. carbon emissions.
Wetlands are sometimes called the lungs of the aquatic ecosystem. Through algae and micro-organisms and plant roots, wetlands filter out bacteria and break down organic compounds, essentially cleaning an ecosystem’s water. Like coral reefs and rainforests, wetlands are a hot spot for biological diversity.
About one-third of all threatened and endangered species in the United States depend on wetlands for survival. Further, half of all endangered species use wetlands at some time.
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