The recent article New Technology Bringing
Big Mining Dollars to the Northland
is a story of huge implications. It reminds me of the adage: If it sounds too good to be true, then it is!
Why beware? As the article noted, “… New environmentally sound technologies are allowing the region to wring our maximum value from its existing natural resource base.”
This phrase hides the crude reality that to accomplish this task, thousands of northern forest and watershed acres will be permanently destroyed, an area of about five square miles, two of which are wetlands.
The Herald
article did not note that the PolyMet mine would destroy, in addition to the 854 acres of wetlands, more than 1,700 acres of other vegetation, and that wetland credits cannot replace this natural biotic community. Nor did the article note that this large open pit mine would probably be followed by a half-dozen or more copper mines stretching from the Ely area to Aitkin County.
ln Metallic Sulfide Mining, Environmental
Impacts,
provided by Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, several chilling situations are listed. Read about them at www. NMW.org.
The seduction of new wealth, jobs and growth of commercial enterprises from the PolyMet mine, and other mines in northeastern Minnesota, is a compelling. Good jobs are hard to find and with Minnesota’s $1.2 billion revenue shortfall hitting the economy of northern Minnesota, such a proposal has some positive issues going for it.
Yet we need to step back and consider carefully what we’re doing to our natural landscape. It’s not enough to just say we need JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. There is more at stake than jobs and shifting economic realities.
Why are we willing to rush into a project that destroys so much of our northern forests and watershed areas for temporary jobs and profits? How would we feel if such a mine is proposed for Cook County?
I am not against jobs, profits or reasonable economic growth. But I am against such things if the costs are too high. If these mines come in, we stand to lose what is worth more than profits. Looking ahead, will future generations of Minnesotans inherit a landscape ravaged by mining or an intact, ecological community of great natural beauty? This is the challenge for all Minnesotans, not just those up north.
Richard C. Struck
Grand Marais
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