I attended Rep. Cravaack’s “Town Hall” held in Grand Portage on August 10. When he opened up the floor for questions, many people there pressed him on the issue of sulfide mining. I personally asked him to cite one example of a non-polluting copper nickel mine anywhere in the world. He was unable to give an example, because there aren’t any.
The Polymet/Glencore Copper Nickel mine proposed for the St. Louis River watershed as well as the Duluth Metals/ Antofagasta operation proposed for Ely are on the fast track for completion and are strongly supported by Cravaack, who once boasted about meeting with Polymet officials his first week in office.
Sulfide mining is also supported by Senators Klobuchar and Franken, who are entrusting “Minnesota’s high environmental standards” as safeguards.
The fact is, in order to push these projects through, the environmental standards that are put in place by Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) scientists based on hard and fast numbers, are now being manipulated to accommodate the mining industry.
One example is the water sulfate standards for wild rice. The current standard is set at 10 mg/liter. The mining industry is now lobbying the MPCA to raise the standard to 250 mg/liter; an action that violates the perimeters clearly stated in the Minnesota Clean Water Act.
But wild rice is just the canary in the copper mine. In defending his position on non ferrous mining in NE MN, Cravaack made the claim that the Ely Mine will provide “1,000 jobs for 100 years.”
If that is true, it is my sincere hope that we as NE Minnesotans will consider how much damage can be done to our watershed in 100 years time and how much it will ultimately cost MN taxpayers in the long run, since neither corporate conglomerate is willing to put up the necessary funds for cleanup costs at the outset.
Please contact our legislators and speak out against these short-sighted corporations who are in effect, experimenting on NE Minnesota, with no intention of taking responsibility for the future.
Staci Lola Drouillard
Grand Marais
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