Dear John,
For the past week and a half, we’ve been in court before a state administrative law judge in St. Paul, presenting evidence that in order to protect the Boundary Waters from the likelihood of pollution, impairment, or destruction, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must amend its rules to prohibit copper-sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.
The case is straightforward: Copper-sulfide mining anywhere in the Boundary Waters watershed would produce industrial noise, light pollution, and water pollution. Sulfate would reach surface waters that flow downstream into the Wilderness, degrading water quality in the Boundary Waters, and fueling the formation of methyl-mercury, a potent neurotoxin that bioaccumulates in the food web and increases the mercury burden in fish, as well as the wildlife and people who eat fish.
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The rules – adopted 31 years ago – are inadequate to protect the Boundary Waters and its watershed from pollution since state and federal law prohibits any water quality degradation in the BWCA, and sulfide-ore copper mines always pollute.
We aim to change the rules so that sulfide-ore copper-nickel mining is banned in the entire watershed – including the portion upstream of the Wilderness, which is currently not off-limits to copper-nickel mining proposals on State-owned lands.
During the trial these last days our legal counsel introduced our expert witnesses and cross-examined the DNR and Twin Metals witnesses. Our witnesses presented excellent testimony demonstrating that sulfide-ore copper mining degrades nearby waters and that permitting processes typically fail to predict the pollution that actually occurs after mines are built, among other critical aspects. |
