In a letter submitted Dec. 20 by Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP), 27 environmental, civic, and commercial organizations have called on the Minnesota DNR, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Superior National Forest to extend the comment period on the NorthMet Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement from 90 days to 180 days.
The extension, the groups say, is necessary because the Impact Statement document is too long and too complex for citizens to adequately review in the 90-day timeline. The Impact Statement covers not only the mine site but also the processing site, public land exchanges, a tailings waste storage pond and financial responsibility. “The document also contains substantive dissenting views,” the letter states, referring to so-called “Major Differences of Opinion.”
MEP Executive Director Steve Morse comments in the letter, “An individual would have to read and analyze 25 pages every day to read the entire document before the end of the comment period and make informed decisions.” While the Impact Statement itself is nearly 2,200 pages long, it references thousands of additional pages of studies that are not easily available to the public.
The letter also requests an additional public hearing in May 2014, near the end of the proposed extended comment period, for public comment based on a more thorough examination of the Impact Statement. Currently, the only public hearings are scheduled for January 2014, which would allow for less than six weeks of public review time.
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