Lawsuit To Be Filed to Stop Pollution at Proposed PolyMet Mine
Site
DULUTH, Minn.— The Center for Biological Diversity, Save
Lake Superior Association, and the Indigenous Environmental
Network today filed formal
notice
that they intend to file suit against mining company Cliffs Erie
to stop the ongoing pollution of waters that surround the
proposed PolyMet mine site. According to Cliffs Erie’s own
monitoring reports, there are numerous ongoing violations of
water-quality laws relating to management of the former LTV
tailings basin. PolyMet’s proposal for its copper-nickel mine is
to pile its own tailings waste on top of those from a former
taconite mine that are still polluting. The 60-day notice letter
is a prerequisite to filing a citizen enforcement action under
the Clean Water Act.
“Before the state even considers the approval of a new wave of
mining in northeastern Minnesota, it should first require the
mining companies to clean up the pollution from past taconite
mines,” said Marc Fink, an attorney with the Center for
Biological Diversity. “As we all learned as kids, you should
clean up one mess before making another one.”
The LTV basin, located six miles north of Hoyt Lakes, was used
for taconite tailings from the 1950s until 2001. The unlined
basin is the source of numerous seeps and discharges of polluted
wastewater into groundwater and surface waters, which eventually
reach the Embarrass River. For the proposed NorthMet mine,
PolyMet proposes to process more than 225 million tons of ore at
the LTV processing facility, and use the same LTV tailings basin
already known to be leaking.
“While past mining has already polluted these waters, the
proposed heavy metals mining would bring severe new threats of
pollution to these waters, which ultimately flow into Lake
Superior at the Duluth harbor,” said Le Lind of the Save Lake
Superior Association. “This new threat includes sulfuric acid
runoff and higher levels of mercury in waters that are already
impaired.”
In addition to the LTV site, the groups intend to file suit to
stop ongoing pollution at the Dunka mine site, which is close to
where Duluth Metals has plans for a copper-nickel mine adjacent
to the Kawishiwi River, and where Franconia Minerals proposes a
copper-nickel mine at the bottom of Birch Lake. Both the
Kawishiwi River and Birch Lake flow into the Boundary Waters.
“These are historic tribal lands where the tribes retain treaty
rights, and many tribal members are deeply concerned about
additional pollution to fishing streams and sources of wild
rice,” said Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental
Network.
The groups are represented by attorney Charlie Tebbutt and Marc
Fink, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity who
resides in Duluth.
For additional information, the following paragraphs are taken
directly from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources prepared for the proposed NorthMet mine, available at:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/environmentalreview/polymet/index.html
PolyMet proposes to mine (over an estimated 20-year mine life)
an average of approximately 91,200 tons per day (tpd) of rock,
and up to 32,000 tpd of ore from a new surface mine consisting
of three pits (i.e., East, Central, and West Pits). Over the
life of the Project, PolyMet would process approximately 228
million tons of base and precious metal ore at the former LTV
Steel Mining Company (LTVSMC) taconite processing facility.
(DEIS, p. 1-1).
The LTVSMC Tailings Basin, proposed for reuse by PolyMet, was
operated from 1953 until it was shutdown in January 2001. The
existing Tailings Basin is unlined and the perimeter embankments
do not have a clay core or cutoff, which allows for both surface
seepage through the embankment and groundwater seepage under the
embankment. (DEIS, p. 4.1-29).
The LTVSMC Tailings Basin contributes both groundwater and
surface water seepage that ultimately reaches the Embarrass
River between monitoring stations PM-12 and PM-13. As discussed
above (Table 4.1-19 and Figure 4.1-14), the LTVSMC Tailings
Basin had at least 33 locations where tailings water was seeping
through the embankment to surface waters. (DEIS, p. 4.1-41).
PolyMet does not propose a liner for the Tailings Basin. As a
result, the Proposed Action would result in increased seepage
from the Tailings Basin relative to existing legacy LTVSMC
seepage, including both surface seepage through the Tailings
Basin embankment and groundwater seepage through the base of the
LTVSMC tailings (Table 4.1-35). Most of this seepage would move
north toward the Embarrass River, but a small portion of seepage
would move south toward Second Creek in the Partridge River
watershed. (DEIS, p. 4.1-63).
It is the Tribal cooperating agencies’ position that the
existing LTVSMC tailings are contributing substantially to the
level of constituents observed in the groundwater. . . It is
unclear how the addition of mine waste to the basins would cause
seepage water quality to improve. (DEIS, p. 4.1-14,
footnote 5).
.