Contact:
Clyde Hanson (218) 387-9081,
(218) 418-1192 (cell)
Iron Works Gets Failing Grade from Mining without Harm Campaign
Lutsen, Minnesota — Today the Sierra Club gave an "F" grade to the draft air and water pollution permits for the proposed Mesabi Nugget iron works and asked Governor Pawlenty to send MPCA to summer school for tutoring on protecting public health and the environment. These permits are being rushed to MPCA Citizen's board for a decision at special July 7th meeting, giving MPCA and EPA little time to digest and act on public input which is due today. This project was exempted from environmental review by a special state law, so little is known by the public about the iron furnace and its impacts.
"We're for mining development that doesn't harm the people and places we love. But we're outraged that a huge furnace with untested technology may get a permit which doesn't require mercury controls, allows haze over the BWCAW, provides incentives for failing performance tests, is full of loopholes and contains promises to further lower its weak standards later without public participation," said Clyde Hanson, a volunteer with the Sierra Club Mining without Harm Campaign. "It seems MPCA executives have forgotten that it's citizens, and not industry, that they're supposed to be serving."
The draft permit would allow 75 lbs of mercury pollution each year, which would make it the eighth largest mercury emitter in the state, and requires only reports from Mesabi Nugget on potential future reductions. Mercury is known to be harmful to developing fetuses and children even in trace amounts.
The proposed air permit also allows 500 times more acid-rain-producing SO2 to be emitted per hour than produced by the pilot plant at Silver Bay, even though the full-scale furnace is only 24 times larger. Pilot plants usually are more polluting than the full-scale furnaces.
The permit allows a smoke plume with up to 10% opacity, event though 2.5% is "noticeably visible" according to the MPCA's Technical Support Document. The plume and haze impacts would be substantial and would degrade the air over the BWCAW. Inter-agency correspondence obtained by the Sierra Club shows that the US Forest Service is concerned the iron furnace may harm the air over the wilderness. Even polluter-friendly Indiana has a 5% opacity limit in their permit for the same furnace and they started at a 3% level in their draft permit at http://oaqpermits.in.gov/19475p.pdf (page 42).
MPCA staff is supporting a variance to water pollution limits for the iron works that would cause briny conditions in Second Creek and the Partridge River that would impair aquatic life needed for good fishing and which would get worse over time. MPCA acknowledges that the wastewater would cause or contribute to the violation of water quality standards for total dissolved solids, specific conductivity, hardness and bicarbonates. According to the MPCA's Variance Issue Statement, "It is expected for substantial parts of the year that water quality standards will not be met for these four pollutants in Second Creek…"
The iron works wastewater goes into the former LTV taconite tailings pit and would be far higher in dissolved salts than the water currently in the pit and being discharged from the pit. At the same time, less water will flow through the pit because the iron furnace will release a great deal of that water to the air through its cooling and other systems. For this reason, the water in the pit will continue to get saltier as the years go by, as will the discharge from the pit. Despite promises of improvement through successive rounds of permitting, nothing in the support documents indicates that this situation will not worsen over the years.
"Abandoning environmental review disenfranchises citizens from evaluating and commenting on the impacts that proposed projects may have on their health and the natural resources that belong to all Minnesotans" said Hanson, "The permit process was never designed to take a comprehensive look at environmental, social and economic aspects of a proposed mega project and to find positive alternatives. Minnesota is at a crossroads. Will we abandon our tradition of strong environmental protection and public involvement in decisions that affect our health and natural resources?"
The proposed 197 ft diameter coal and gas furnace with a 19-story smokestack would be in Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. Many of the ingredients in the metal recipe have been kept from the public as "trade secrets," making it impossible to confirm the pollution estimates. Arrowhead citizens from all walks of life are working together to protect the people at risk of pollution-caused sickness and the Lake Superior and BWCAW watersheds by asking the government and industry for Mining Without Harm.
| MPCA | - | Minnesota Pollution Control Agency |
| EPA | - | federal Environmental Protection Agency |
| BWCAW | - | Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness |