Conservationists with Common CWCSPreserving access to and multiple-use of Sense public lands & waters WINTER 2014 NEWSLETTER CWCS • P.O. BOX 1046 • VIRGINIA, MN 55792-1046 • www.cwcs.org PolyMet SDEIS released, hearings start A Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or SDEIS, for PolyMet’s Why do environmental groups say proposed copper-nickel mine in Northeast- water treatment will be required for 200 to 500 years? ern Minnesota is under public review and scrutiny. It was prepared by Minnesota De- The timeframes used in the water in the models to represent the maximum partment of Natural Resources, U.S. Army models in PolyMet’s SDEIS have nothing potential impacts at the reference points. Corps of Engineers United States Forest to do with water treatment and everything The modeling years have no correlation Service, not by PolyMet. to do with ensuring that downstream wa- to the years that will be required for actual Read it ter resources are protected in the event treatment. The 2,000-page-plus statement (too untreated water leaks offsite. The models What is the sulfide content at NorthMet? much to read, there is a 58-page executive were not designed to determine the dura- Has copper/nickel been mined safely? summary - http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/input/ tion of water treatment. PolyMet’s large, low sulfide, low environmentalreview/polymet/sdeis/004_ The models were designed to deter- grade ore deposit would be an open pit executive_summary.pdf ) is posted at http:// mine impacts to water quality at key refer- mine. NorthMet low grade ore contains www.dnr.state.mn.us/input/environmental- ence points in the watersheds downstream .31% copper with low sulfur content of review/polymet/index.html . Also at the site of the tailings basin (Embarrass River .88%. In comparison, the Flambeau Cop- are fact sheets on issues including water watershed) and downstream of the mine per Mine in Wisconsin had 11% copper quality, wild rice and reclamation. site (Partridge River watershed). The ex- with 30% sulfur. Flambeau has been Comment at a hearing tended timeframes (200 years in one case commended for its strong environmental Three public hearings are scheduled to and 500 years in the other) were needed commitment and record. gather feedback, both those in support and those opposing the project. house at 5 p.m. followed by 6:45 - 10:00 meetings, comment in writing. Thursday, January 16, 2014 p.m. formal presentation and public com- Written comments will be accepted DECC – Duluth Entertainment Conven- ment period through 4:30 p.m., Thursday, March 13. tion Center Verbal and written comments on the They can be submitted by email to North- Wednesday, January 22, 2014 Supplemental Draft EIS will be accepted at [email protected] or by snail Mesabi East High School these meetings. mail to Lisa Fay, EIS Project Manager, 601 N 1st St W, Aurora, MN 55705 Responses to comments will not be pro- MDNR Division of Ecological and Water Tuesday, January 28, 2014 vided during the public meetings; however, Resources, Environmental Review Unit, St. Paul RiverCentre staff from the state and federal agencies will 500 Lafayette Road, Box 25, St. Paul, MN 175 West Kellogg Blvd, Saint Paul, be available to answer questions during each 55155-4025. All comments are public, in- MN 55102 open house. cluding from whom they came. Each session will begin with an open If you are unable to attend the above South Fowl snowmobile trail still held up in court by Rhonda Silence the four environmental groups opposed to Carlson, a retired forester, is a board Ronald Carlson of Hovland, a retired construction of the trail, which would re- member of the Arrowhead Coalition for forester and McFarland Lake cabin owner, place one closed by the U.S. Forest Service Multiple Use (ACMU), which along with is getting tired of the bureaucratic delays in 2003, had requested—and been granted— Ely-based Conservationists with Common regarding the construction of a 2.2-mile the right to amend their 2006 complaint Sense (CWCS), and Cook County, is an snowmobile trail between McFarland and against the Forest Service, he said he won- (Continued on Page Two) South Fowl lakes. When Carlson heard that dered if the legal wrangling would ever end. CWCS mission statement: To educate the public in order to preserve reasonable access to and sensible, multiple-use recreation of public lands and waters (including motorized uses) in Northeastern Minnesota, especially the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), with care for the environment. Why CWCS continues to fight: “(We will) embark on a 10 year campaign to get every single motor out of the Boundary Waters” – Brian O’Neill, quoted in May 20, 1998 Minneapolis Star-Tribune CWCS WINTER 2013 NEWSLETTER PAGE TWO Inter-governmental Management Council, Remembering Senator Rod Grams which would allow local, county, state, and tribal elected officials to work along with This past fall, CWCS lost a good tional treaties between the U.S. and Canada. federal agencies, giving their input, but not friend in former Senator Rod Grams. Our (It was at the International Falls hearing that allowing for local control of the manage- condolences go out to his wife and family. Senator Wellstone suggested a snowmobile ment of the Boundary Waters. The Secretary CWCS would like to recap the work Senator trail from Ely to the Crane Lake area along of Agriculture would have the final say in Grams did in the name of common sense the Echo Trail to replace the snowmobile any management plan. and preservation of multiple use access to trails lost within the Boundary Waters. This The Grams/Oberstar legislation was the Boundary Waters. is a snowmobile trail area clubs are still defeated in the U.S. Senate by Democrats In the spring of 1996, Senator Rod trying to obtain.) Senator Wellstone would led by Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone Grams and Congressman James Oberstar not support this bi-partisan legislation, and and assisted by a veto threat from the Clinton introduced legislation addressing reopening recommended mediation instead. Administration. the three truck portages of the BWCAW, Senate and House Hearings were held Even though many of the major stake- eliminating the split lakes confusion of mo- in Washington D.C. in July of 1996 on the holders involved in the BWCAW dispute tor usage on the larger lakes, and retaining Grams/Oberstar BWCAW legislation con- had declined to participate in BWCAW motor use on Seagull Lake beyond 1999 cerning the three main points of the legisla- mediation, the Federal Mediation & Concili- Legislative concerns of Voyageurs in- tion - returning the trucks to the three mo- ation Service went ahead with Senator Paul cluded retaining snowmobile use throughout torized portages between motorized lakes; Wellstone’s mediation plan. CWCS declined the park, forming a joint local/county/state/ uniform motor-use boundary adjustments on to participate for several reasons including tribal/federal planning and management of Lac La Croix, Basswood, Birch Lake of the the refusal to acknowledge the BWCAW Voyageurs and the BWCAW, and recogni- Moose Lake Chain, Saganaga, and Seagull tion of state jurisdiction and existing interna- Lakes, which already allow motors; and the (Continued on Page Three) South Fowl snowmobile trail still held up in court (Continued from Page One) Canoe Area.” On September 17, 2013, the commis- The groups opposing construction of sioners voted unanimously to continue to intervenor in the lawsuit launched against the trail also site the Boundary Waters Act, pursue the case, along with CWCS and the U.S. Forest Service by the Izaak Walton claiming that Section 4(b) of the Wilder- ACMU by sharing half the cost of the next League of America, Inc., Wilderness Watch ness Act “does not permit a federal agency step of litigation. of Missoula, Montana, Sierra Club Northstar responsible for protecting the wilderness Commissioner Sue Hakes said numer- Chapter and Northeastern Minnesotans for character of an area to ignore its wilderness- ous parties on both sides of this issue have Wilderness. preservation duties when authorizing ac- spent a great deal of money for a portion of Carlson is especially frustrated because tivities just beyond the border of the area. trail that is really not very long. The money the trail should have been rerouted long Impacts to wilderness are not classified spent on it could have been put to far greater ago. He noted that the trail closed in 2003 according to the location of the authorized use to protect the environment, she said. predates the creation of the Boundary Waters activity.” Hakes told her colleagues that she will Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and fol- Rather, Izaak Walton League of Amer- be working with Assistant County Attorney lows a logging road built by Grand Marais ica and other plaintiffs claim that the Forest Molly Hicken and representatives of the logger Verl Tilbury. The trail, according Service has a “duty to preserve the wilder- ACMU and CWCS to prepare for a meeting to U.S. Forest Service documents, is vis- ness [that] is wholly independent of the with Attorney David Oberstar on the ongo- ible outside the BWCA in 1970. When the source or location of that activity.” ing litigation over South Fowl. Boundary Waters Act of 1978 was passed, The groups argue that Superior Na- Attorney Oberstar said the govern- the wilderness boundaries were changed and tional Forest Gunflint District Ranger Den- ment had until November 15 to answer the the trail was inadvertently included in the nis Neitzke did not properly consider the amended complaint. Oberstar said he had wilderness. No closure signs were posted impacts of his February 2006 decision to filed an answer for his clients, Cook County, until 2003.