{"id":78,"date":"2010-01-26T00:05:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T05:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/?p=78"},"modified":"2010-01-28T07:18:58","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T12:18:58","slug":"cliffs-cited-for-extensive-minnesota-iron-mining-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/cliffs-cited-for-extensive-minnesota-iron-mining-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Cliffs Cited for Extensive Minnesota Iron Mining Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three groups today announced their intent to file suit against Cliffs Erie<\/a>, a subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources, for ongoing water pollution from previous taconite iron mining at three sites on Minnesota\u2019s Iron Range. \u00a0PolyMet Mining Co. plans to utilize two of the sites in order to dispose of wastes from its proposed metallic-sulfide NorthMet project. \u00a0As part of a purchase agreement, Cliffs would maintain a roughly 7% stake in the project. \u00a0The other Cliffs site, at the old Dunka Mine, is closer to Franconia Minerals and Duluth Metals\u2019 proposed sulfide projects.<\/p>\n

A news\u00a0release issued by the Center for Biological Diversity noted that, \u201caccording to Cliffs Erie\u2019s own monitoring reports, there are numerous ongoing violations of water-quality laws relating to management of the former LTV tailings basin. PolyMet\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Center for Biological Diversity, Save Lake Superior Association, and the Indigenous Environmental Network<\/a> filed a formal notice letter today that acts as a \u201cprerequisite to filing a citizen enforcement action under the Clean Water Act.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The Save Lake Superior Association<\/a>, a grassroots citizen group, proved instrumental in holding the Reserve Mining Co. to account for dumping iron mining waste into Lake Superior from 1955 into the 1970s. \u00a0The pollution introduced asbestos-like material into the lake and harmed fishing in the area.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBefore 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,\u201d said Marc Fink, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cAs we all learned as kids, you should clean up one mess before making another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0For 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d said Le Lind of the Save Lake Superior Association. \u201cThis new threat includes sulfuric acid runoff and higher levels of mercury in waters that are already impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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,\u201d said Marty Cobenais of the Indigenous Environmental Network.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three groups today announced their intent to file suit against Cliffs Erie, a subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources, for ongoing water pollution from previous taconite iron mining at three sites on Minnesota\u2019s Iron Range. PolyMet Mining Co. plans to utilize two of the sites in order to dispose of wastes from its proposed metallic-sulfide NorthMet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,3],"tags":[31,36,32,33,28,34,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elyminnesota.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}