A letter in last week’s paper favored Twin Metals’ request for mineral lease renewal. It implied that because the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are multiple use agencies, the leases should be renewed.
But think about it. These agencies must sustainably manage for, among other things, recreation, commercial uses, wildlife, fisheries, and protection of wilderness and watersheds. All of these are complex and include many activities and enterprises.
Obviously, not all uses can happen on the same piece of land.
Just because some company – in this case, a giant foreign corporation – wants something doesn’t mean the agency should just say yes. And if a proposed use would make current uses on the same or adjacent lands impossible, it makes perfect sense not to allow the new use.
If the Forest Service and the BLM agree at this early stage that a gigantic copper mine in this location is not compatible with other mandated uses of our public lands, then it’s smart of them to say so now, before entering into a very long process that would be extremely expensive for taxpayers, and, given the science of sulfide ore mining, would likely have the same result.
The letter writer thought there should have been more information provided at the recent public listening session in Duluth. Possibly the Forest Service assumed that citizens have had access to the extensive media coverage of the past few years, as well as the very large body of information available on the science of this type of mining. This includes Twin Metals’ Pre-feasibility Study, EIS documents concerning similar proposals and research findings on mining in sulfide ores.
Twin Metals would site its mining operations upstream from Basswood Lake and other waters in the BWCAW and Voyageurs National Park. I believe this type of mining has never been done without serious, if not devastating, downstream pollution. There are no new technologies that would provide any basis for hope that the Boundary Waters, as well as other public lands near the proposed mine sites, wouldn’t be devastated if Twin Metals gets what it wants.
I applaud the Forest Service for its caution and hope it will ask the BLM not to renew the outdated mineral leases.
Ellen Hawkins
Tofte
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