4. MPCA hid EPA’s PolyMet Mine criticism from the public
Photo: proposed PolyMet mine site
Issue: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to keep its criticisms of the agency’s PolyMet copper sulfide mine air quality permit out of the public record. It’s another case where the MPCA seems more aligned with corporate interests than public interests. The PolyMet mine would be located “in the headwaters of the St. Louis River, the largest United States tributary to Lake Superior,” WaterLegacy says. If allowed to operate, “the PolyMet mine would destroy 1,000 acres of Minnesota wetlands and peatlands, contaminate drinking water and surface water with sulfate and toxic metals, decimate wild rice, and increase already dangerous levels of mercury contamination of fish…”
MPCA’s shortcomings: In response to the EPA’s concerns, the MPCA asked the agency to withhold its written comments during the public comment period. Instead, the MPCA asked the EPA to call and read its comments over the phone. That kept them out of the public record. Someone leaked the EPA’s critique, revealing the MPCA’s deceit. The MPCA’s primary motivation seems to have been to avoid bad press for PolyMet, and that motivation is “corrupt,” the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) said. MCEA sued to overturn PolyMet’s permit. The Minnesota Court of Appeals sided with MCEA. The court found the MPCA had failed to review MCEA’s comments and respond to them. The Star Tribune wrote at the time that both PolyMet and the MPCA “downplayed the significance of the Appeals Court decision.” (In other words, the two were aligned.) The MPCA also ignored the Fond du Lac Band’s concerns about the mine’s water pollution and how it would affect wild rice. As a sovereign nation, Fond du Lac has its own water quality standards that should have been considered.
Links:
Minnesota Supreme Court Decision on PolyMet Mine case
Friends of the Boundary Waters PolyMet Overview
WaterLegacy’s PolyMet Mine Overview
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy PolyMet Overview
Sierra Club’s PolyMet Overview
Minnesota Environmental Project Sulfide Mining Overview