Legislators back profits over jobs and the environment

REGIONAL—Here on the Iron Range, the debates over mining typically focus on the age-old fault line: jobs versus the environment.

But increasingly, the dividing line has shifted, at least among Iron Range legislative leaders, who are increasingly focused on enhancing mining company profits, even at the expense of the environment as well as jobs.

Take the case of U.S. Steel’s massive Minntac plant and its 8,000-acre tailings basin just north of Virginia, which has been discharging millions of gallons of high-sulfate production water annually into northeastern Minnesota rivers and lakes on a permit that expired in 1992. The state’s Pollution Control Agency is in the process of issuing a new permit to the company and it has proposed to enforce the state’s strict 10 mg/l sulfate limit on the company’s discharges that flow into the Sandy River, a tributary to the Pike River, which empties into Lake Vermilion’s Pike Bay.

Water quality testing conducted in recent years shows sulfate levels on Lake Vermilion average just over 10 mg/l currently, about five times the average for other lakes in the region (which typically range from 1.4 to 3.5 mg/l according to the MPCA). The MPCA, in a report issued in 2008, calls for further monitoring to understand the reasons behind the higher-than-expected sulfate levels on Lake Vermilion, but acknowledges: “It seems likely that the Sandy River (a tributary to the Pike River) is an important source.” That’s the bureaucratic way of stating that Minntac’s tailings basin is contributing to higher sulfate levels in Lake Vermilion. Indeed, recent water testing on the Sandy River showed sulfate levels averaging 118 mg/l. It’s no wonder that Lake Vermilion’s water quality is feeling the effects.

U.S. Steel, not surprisingly, is protesting any suggestion that it meet the longstanding standard. They say enforcing the 40-year-old regulation (enacted in 1973 to protect wild rice) will be unnecessarily costly and burdensome. They’ve appealed to Iron Range legislators, who have introduced legislation that would prevent the MPCA from enforcing the standard for the foreseeable future.

This represents a somewhat stunning development, even for the Iron Range. Area legislators have long been captives of the mining sector, but in the past their allegiances typically favored mine workers, rather than corporate shareholders.

In this case, we’re not talking about jobs versus the environment. U.S. Steel isn’t going to shut down its Minntac plant just because the state finally gets tough on its high sulfate discharges.

U.S. Steel is a massive integrated steel manufacturer and finisher, which netted $2.78 billion in profits between 2004 and 2014. Minntac, which currently provides two-thirds of the raw material that keeps U.S. Steel’s empire operating, isn’t going anywhere. Indeed, state regulators recently approved a mine expansion there that will keep the company mining taconite at the facility for many years to come. Building and operating a water treatment facility to clean tailings basin water prior to discharge will certainly cost money, but we’re talking about a small nick to profits, nothing more.

The company isn’t going to cut its Minntac workforce because of it. If anything, requiring the company to make an additional investment in plant infrastructure will encourage future production. Iron Range legislators have argued as much for years, when they annually return a portion of the taconite production tax to mining companies for facility upgrades.

In addition, the company would have to hire workers to staff its water treatment facility. While Iron Range legislators often hate to admit it, protecting the environment often creates jobs, and this is a good example.

I don’t fault U.S. Steel for resisting the MPCA, or sending lobbyists to St. Paul to plead its case. As a publicly-traded company, their duty is to their shareholders. If they can pad their dividends at the expense of northeastern Minnesota’s water quality, they’ll certainly do so.

It’s Iron Range legislators who seem to have lost all sense of perspective, putting the interests of corporate shareholders, most of whom don’t even live in Minnesota, ahead of the interests of their own constituents. After all, it’s not just environmentalists who want clean water. Many of the workers who spend long hours in area mines spend their free time fishing on Lake Vermilion, which is directly affected by Minntac’s discharges. And the chemical reactions sparked by high sulfate levels in sediments lacking oxygen contribute to increased mercury levels in fish. If you don’t care about water quality for its own sake, at least consider the connection to human health.

Iron Range legislators need to regain a sense a perspective when it comes to the Mesabi Iron Range’s only industry. Currently, their response to any effort at protecting the environment from the impacts of mining is open hostility. We need leaders who aren’t subject to such knee-jerk reactions whenever someone suggests we should quit undermining the region’s water quality. And, most of all, we need leaders who aren’t content to serve as mere handmaidens to captains of the mining industry.

Editor's Note: A similar version of this column by Marshall Helmberger appeared last week in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.