COMMUNITY VOICES | It’s time to put PolyMet on the shelf

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Take a deep breath, Minnesota public.  The Supplementary Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for PolyMet’s proposed copper-nickel sulfide mine is available for public review through March 13, 2014. At stake is whether the state will uphold a project whose own modeling shows that the mine would require at least 500 years of water treatment after closure. Despite public astonishment and outcry, PolyMet and the agencies claim that 500 years of treatment is nothing out of the ordinary.Where is our leadership?When the only jobs that our political and business leaders can promote are those in which the workers will sacrifice the environment for future generations, then Minnesota has a deficit of responsible and ethical leadership. Is it right to put our water resources at risk, when clean water is a main requirement for survival?  Is it right to accept a project because it “minimizes risks,” when those risks will impact generations long after we are long gone.Financial AssuranceOh but,  the agencies and mining companies claim, there will be financial assurance to make sure that there is money available to treat water pollution that would peak in 500 years.So what is the cheapest amount of financial assurance that the mining company can get by with? You can bet your bottom dollar that it would be an amount negotiated to insure that Glencore-Xstrata,  the largest single investor in PolyMet,  doesn’t  threaten to back out. And after the 20 year projected life span of the mine,  who’s going to be counting anyway?  Plus, the majority of the current agency personnel will be retired in 20 years.  So who will be around to check on PolyMet in 20 years, let alone 200?Financial assurance also ignores a basic fact. Continue Reading

Lake Superior hits new ice cover record

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We’re all painfully aware of how brutally cold winter has been thus far. January produced average monthly temperatures five to ten degrees below normal across Minnesota; for some communities, this was one of the coldest Januarys on record in the past 35 years. It may not come as a surprise that we had the dubious honor of reaching the coldest temperature in the nation on more days than any other state – seventeen. It may also be unsurprising that the amount of ice cover on the Great Lakes is much higher than average this year, and may be on track to break the record of 94.7% in 1978. Continue Reading

Paying for copper-nickel clean up

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If a proposed mine has the potential to produce environmental impacts that will last for decades – maybe even centuries – how can we be sure taxpayers won’t get stuck footing the bill for costly treatment and cleanup? This question is at the heart of debates over PolyMet Mining Corporation’s plans to develop an open-pit copper-nickel mine and processing facility in northeast Minnesota, and will be addressed at a House environmental committee today. It will be streamed live on the House website at 12:30 pm. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | 20th anniversary of environmental justice milestone: What next?

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Justice Should Be Central To U.S. Climate and Energy Policy Feb 11th, 2014 is the twentieth anniversary of Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. The Executive Order was the result of a long history of struggle by Indigenous, communities of color, and frontline communities.  Many who were active in the movement continue to lead efforts to keep justice and equity at the top of the environmental agenda.  While the Executive Order  was a critical milestone –– symbolizing official acknowledgement of environmental racism and the disproportionate impact that frontline Indigenous, communities of color and low-income communities face from toxic pollution — there is still much work to do. Thankfully, President Obama acknowledged the importance of climate change on the national political agenda in both his Inaugural Address and in the State of the Union. Since then, a national climate action plan has been introduced. Making climate change a policy priority is critical.  In their offensive against science (and just plain old common sense), a block of business and political climate nay-sayers have been too effective in obstructing a U.S. climate change policy. Unless we address this national failure to act, the future for our children will be more devastating than the zealous claims of fiscal doom.  The environmental justice movement has a long and proud history of working to create healthy environmental and economic opportunities for all our communities, not just a privileged few. Continue Reading

Don’t like the weather? Wait 30 years

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Having lived and worked in Minnesota for over twenty years, this winter, now in D.C., I experienced something new: I had my first work snow day. Though I had heard rumblings of a winter storm, it didn’t occur to me that a bit of snow would shut down the city until the news told me to stay home. Continue Reading