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News
Duluth News Tribune
June 20, 2010
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may bow to pressure from federal pollution regulators to take another run at the environmental impact statement for the PolyMet copper mine project.
The Environmental Protection Agency in February blasted the report, saying it didn't consider the issue of setting aside money for cleanup after the mine closes, and that the study didn't adequately address water quality threats, endangered species and wetland destruction.
Since the EPA comments were filed, state and federal agencies and the company have been deciding how to proceed.
The U.S. Forest Service also has joined discussions related to its proposed land exchange for the PolyMet mine site, now part of the Superior National Forest.
"One of the options under consideration includes the release of a supplemental draft EIS for public comment," Stuart Arkley, project coordinator for the DNR, told the News Tribune. "The agencies have given serious thought to a number of options but have not yet made a final decision. Such a decision would be a joint decision between the DNR, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service. We have been in regular communications with these agencies."
LaTish Geitzen, spokeswoman for PolyMet, said that "the state and federal agencies have been working hard to determine the best path forward to advance the process."
More work might be done to better calculate the likely impacts of a PolyMet mine and processing plant, Arkley said.
The $600 million PolyMet project would create 400 or more jobs for about 20 years and has been praised by Iron Range leaders as a critical step toward diversifying the region's dependence on iron-ore mining.
But the EPA in February rated the environmental review "environmentally unsatisfactory-inadequate" and threatened that, if the EIS was not upgraded, the agency would oppose the project and move it to the president's Council on Environmental Quality.
"Our review has identified adverse environmental impacts that are of sufficient magnitude that EPA believes the (PolyMet project) must not proceed as proposed," EPA acting regional administrator Bharat Mathur wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
