|
|
On December 27, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a lawsuit filed by Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW) that challenged the adequacy of the state’s nonferrous mining rules.
The lawsuit filed by NMW was brought under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. At the heart of the matter, NMW contends that the state’s rules for where mines can be built fail to protect the Boundary Waters from potential pollution caused by sulfide-ore copper mining.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was the defendant in the lawsuit and did not challenge the ruling. However, Twin Metals Minnesota, an intervenor in the case, contends that the state’s current rules on nonferrous mining provide adequate protection for the surrounding environment.
In a December 27 press release Becky Rom, National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, stated, “The Boundary Waters is a national and state treasure. Today’s strong legal decision by the Minnesota Court of Appeals clears the way for a much-needed examination by the state of whether the nation’s most toxic industry should be allowed in the same watershed as America’s most visited Wilderness.”
Twin Metals contends that it will build an underground mine that will have little impact on the surface and use dry stack tailings management, which is considered the “gold standard” for this type of mining.
If built, Twin Metals says it will bring more than “750 direct full-time jobs and 1,500 spinoff jobs to residents of northeast Minnesota-an unprecedented economic impact that has the potential to revitalize an entire region.” Twin Metals began in 2006 with a hydrogeological study of northeast Minnesota, and in January 2010, Duluth Metals Limited formed a partnership with Antofagasta PLC, forming Twin Metals Minnesota.
While the proposed Twin Metals mine is within the buffer zone for the BWCAW, it is also in the Rainy River Headwaters. North Eastern Minnesotans contend a 430-acre toxic tailings storage facility on the shores of Birch Lake immediately upstream of the Boundary Waters “threatens the high quality of the Wilderness and the Rainy River Headwaters.”
Those waters also flow into the Quetico Provincial Park and Voyageurs National Park.
On October 20, 2021, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a notice in the Federal Register initiating a 90-day public comment period on an application from the Forest Service to withdraw 225,378 acres of land from new mineral leasing in the Rainy River Watershed near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) for 20 years. The Forest Service submitted the withdrawal application to the Bureau of Land Management, which manages subsurface rights in the Superior National Forest, on September 28, 2021.
The Notice of Application for Withdrawal and Segregation of Federal lands covers Cook, Lake and Saint Louis Counties.
In the Forest Service’s Application for Withdrawal, it stated, “The purpose of the proposed withdrawal is to advance a comprehensive approach to protect and preserve the fragile and vital social and natural resources, ecological integrity, and wilderness values in the Rainy River Watershed, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Mining Protection Area (MPA) in northeastern Minnesota, which are threatened by potential future sulfide mining. Development of sulfide-bearing mineral resources present in the withdrawal area could lead to permanently stored waste materials and other conditions upstream of the BWCAW and the MPA with the potential to generate and release effluent with elevated levels of acidity, metals, and other potential contaminants. Failure of required mitigation measures, containment facilities, or remediation efforts at mine sites and their related facilities could lead to irreversible degradation of this key water-based wilderness resource. The purpose of the proposed withdrawal is also to prevent the effects of climate change on precipitation regimes and protect the health, traditional cultural values, and subsistence based lifestyle of the Tribes, which rely on resources in the region such as wild rice that are particularly susceptible to adverse impacts associated with mining. The lands will remain open to other forms of use and disposition as may be allowed by law on National Forest System lands, including the sale of mineral materials.”
After reviewing the application, the BLM accepted the application and published a notice in the Federal Register, initiating two-year segregation that temporarily prohibits the issuance of new Federal mineral prospecting permit or lease applications in the withdrawal area. During the segregation period, the BLM and the Forest Service will seek public comment and complete necessary studies, analysis, and reports required to inform the Secretary of the Interior’s decision on whether to withdraw the lands from mining laws for 20-years.
Public meetings
The United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will hold three virtual public meetings in January on the proposed mineral withdrawal in the Rainy River Watershed on the Superior National Forest.
The purpose of the meetings is to listen to the public’s concerns and ensure they are addressed in the environmental analysis. The meetings will include a short introduction by agency leadership and a listening session. Attendees selected in advance will be able to provide verbal comments with a three-minute time limit. In addition, oral comments, including names, will become an official part of the record. Each session will accommodate up to 3,000 individual users and will include a phone line option.
If you wish to provide an official comment during one of the meetings, you must pre-register 48 hours before the meeting you plan to attend. Agencies will use a lottery system to randomly select speakers from the list of registrants for each meeting. If you are selected to speak, you will be notified by email from the Forest Service 24 hours in advance of the meeting.
Public meeting schedule
Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m., CST, Register by Monday, January 10, 1 p.m. CST: blm.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_z0ihp2ikSkSug9QnsaLjag
Saturday, January 15, 2022, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., CST, Register by Thursday, January 13, 2022, at 10 a.m. CT: blm.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_q9OWw5P3TSuvACoQ2o6gnQ
Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 5 p.m. – 8 p.m., CST, Register by Sunday, January 16, 2022, at 5 p.m. CST: blm.zoomgov.com/ webinar/register/WN_rs2ueUYaQCoRO25s- 2bLqA
How to comment
Comments will be accepted through January 19, 2022. Comments must be submitted in writing or electronically to the Bureau of Land Management for consideration. Comments previously submitted during the 2018 application for withdrawal will be reviewed and considered in the development of the Forest Service’s current environmental analysis.
Comments will be used to determine issues associated with the proposed withdrawal, develop alternatives, determine the scope of analysis, and refine the effects analysis. Comments are most useful and effective if they refer to a specific activity or example, provide a potential solution, or propose mitigation.
Comments regarding this withdrawal proposal should be sent to: F. David Radford, Deputy State Director of Geospatial Services, BLM Eastern States Office, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, Virginia 22041; or by email to BLM_ES_Lands@blm.gov.
All comments received (including names and addresses) will become part of the project record and will be available for public inspection.
BLM will also publish a notice of time and place for a public meeting in connection with the application for withdrawal in the Federal Register and on agency websites at least 30-days before the scheduled date of the meeting.
Leave a Reply