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At a press conference in Duluth last week, representatives from both WaterLegacy and Environment Minnesota announced the  collection of over ten thousand petition signatures opposing the proposed Hoyt Lakes Polymet mine. The signatures will be delivered to the EPA and to the state of Minnesota. Jake Albright of EnvironmentMN pointed out the severe environmental damage done by every sulfide mine operation across our country and throughout the world.

Allen Richardson, Northern MN Coordinator for WaterLegacy, told reporters that several thousand petitions signed by Minnesotans opposed to sulfide mining were delivered to Governor Mark Dayton in July. Richardson also spoke about the threat of pollution seepage from mine pits and of heavy metal leakage from mine wastes.

Cloquet health professional, Bethel Anderson, warned of the high levels of methymercury that sulfide mining can deposit in lakes and rivers. Currently, one in ten newborns in the North Shore area already has dangerously high levels of mercury in their blood.

This week, at a series of meetings in Ely, Isabell and Duluth, WaterLegacy attorney, Paula Maccabee, addressed the public about the second Environmental Impact Statement recently submitted by Polymet. The EPA rejected Polymet’s initial EIS submitted over a year ago, and will pass judgment on the new plan. If it is permitted, the door could be open to other sulfide mines such as one proposed just a few miles from the Boundary Waters wilderness by Twin Metals. Concerned citizens have spoken to EPA Region 5 administrator, Susan Hedman, about preventing these proposals. At previous public meetings, former mine official, Bob Tammen, has shared maps that show veins of copper, nickel and gold that come near Duluth and even close to Lake Superior itself. The Duluth Complex may be one of the largest known reserves of these metals.

Sulfide or metallic (hard rock) mining has never yet proven to be sustainable. Corporations mine the ore, make their money and leave devastation behind for states and the US government to cleàn up. In the western US, the Forest Service estimates that between 20,000 to 50,000 mines are currently generating sulfuric acid on Forest Service lands, impacting up to 11,000 miles of streams. At the Summitville Gold Mine in Colorado, 17 miles of the Alamosa River have been rendered lifeless due to cyanide leaching. 13 mines in Nevada await cleanup, 5 in Montana, and mines in South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, etc.

In the eastern US, over 4000 miles of rivers are affected. Pollution has resulted in the permanent elimination of or damage to aquatic life at most sites. Drinking water may be at risk, and heavy metals contaminate the soil as they are carried by groundwater. In Georgia, the Madneudi copper/gold open pit mine has caused heavy metal pollution of groundwater and of three nearby rivers. Adverse health effects may take time to emerge because contamination spread may be a slow process. In areas of former Roman copper mines, animals still contain copper in their tissues.

Minnesota mining has traditionally been for iron which comes from oxide ores. Other heavy metals are not mobilized in iron ore mining. Polymet mining will come from sulfur bearing ores. When sulfur meets water, the product is sulfuric acid. No method of sulfide mining to date has been found to safely contain the acid nor the heavy metal leachate that’s produced. Sulfide mining has huge waste to mineral ratios. For 1.6 million tons of copper, a minimum of 270 million tons of ore must be mined. Polymet estimates it will reap .28% copper and .08% nickel. Waste rock disposal areas reach 1000’s of acres in size, which takes habitat and eliminates animals.

In Oregon, acid mine drainage flowed into the headwaters of creeks, reducing fish populations by 90%. In Minnesota, up to $3 billion per year is spent on recreational fishing, supporting 50,000 jobs.

The EPA has said that Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from metal mining is the largest problem facing the US mining industry. In 2000, the EPA called the metal mining industry the largest toxic polluter. Already in Minnesota sulfides from the LTV Dunka mine produced AMD. To protect its waters, environment and people, Wisconsin in 1997 put a moratorium on sulfide mining till it could be demonstrated that a mine could operate without ground and surface water contamination. It took a lot of concerned citizens to reach that resolution.