The News Tribune’s April 22 “Our View” editorial lauding the reversal of the 20-year moratorium on mining on federal lands upstream from the Boundary Waters displayed an unfortunate eagerness to credit copper mining industry propaganda. I am not anti-mining. My grandfather was an Ely iron miner. But there are some places too valuable and too vulnerable for copper mining — and the headwaters of the Boundary Waters is one such place.
The editorial (“ Federal action gives modern mining the chance it deserves ”) was littered with factual errors.
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The administration of President Joe Biden did not skip the “congressional review” required by law for the moratorium protecting the Boundary Waters watershed. It followed the letter of the law, including giving the required notices and reports to every government office to which notice was mandated and to all of Minnesota’s members of Congress. The administration of President Donald Trump, with the complicity of 8th Congressional District Rep. Pete Stauber, fabricated the claim that notice had not been given in 2023 and “reissued” notice this year to justify the fraudulent use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn the order.
The moratorium did not ban helium exploration.
The moratorium was not “appeasement to far-left supporters” from the Biden administration. The processes under law that led to the mining moratorium in the Rainy River Headwaters portion of the Boundary Waters watershed included 454 days for public comment, eight public listening sessions, 675,000 written comments in support of protecting the Boundary Waters, and 22 scientific resource reports. The moratorium was the result of the overwhelming support for a ban on copper mining in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters and of the science showing the dire risk that mining would pose. Trump’s pollster, Fabrizio Ward, found that 70% of Minnesotans oppose copper mining upstream from the Boundary Waters.
Contrary to the editorial, Antofagasta’s Twin Metals submitted a mine plan for review in December 2019; it was rejected by state and federal agencies.
If Antofagasta was allowed to dig its Twin Metals mine, it would benefit China’s industrial development, not our green economy. Antofagasta sends its copper to China for smelting and sale. The proposed Antofagasta/Twin Metals mine at the edge of the Boundary Waters is a distinctly anti-American project designed to benefit Chilean billionaires and China.
Environmental standards in place are inadequate to protect the Boundary Waters. The science documenting the permanent harm that upstream mining could cause has only become stronger since 2023. Two taconite mines (Peter Mitchell and the dormant Dunka) are currently polluting the Boundary Waters, even though both state and federal law establish an absolute non-degradation standard.
The Trump administration is gutting the EPA’s Clean Water Act regulations to drastically reduce the authority of states and tribes to protect water quality. The MPCA wrote that the EPA’s rule changes would leave the state unable to address water-quality concerns in or near the Boundary Waters because of mining. Trump’s Interior Department has also radically changed procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act, dictating that environmental assessments be completed — start to finish — in 14 days with no public input and that environmental impact statements be completed in 28 days with a mere 10-day comment period. The Trump administration clearly has no intention of making science-based decisions to protect America’s public lands.
The mining moratorium was an action to help protect the people and businesses of the Boundary Waters region. The only peer-reviewed and published economic study of the proposed Twin Metals project showed that the region would enjoy more jobs and income if no copper mining was allowed in the headwaters.
The Boundary Waters is priceless and irreplaceable. We must permanently ban copper mining in its headwaters.