MPCA keeping the public in the dark about sulfates

It’s sad to watch and listen to the MPCA these days, tying itself into knots and being pushed into ever more indefensible positions by money and politicians over sulfates and the 10mg standard. This “complex equation” and “the beginning of a lengthy debate” etc. etc. is just more of the same stalling and delaying tactics that have been used since 1973.

But there is a bigger issue concerning sulfates than wild rice, folks. It is the role that sulfates play in the conversion of inorganic mercury to methylmercury, a highly potent neurotoxin. This conversion process has been known since the late 1960s but the MPCA must consider this “old, outdated science” because they’re denying, in public forums, that sulfates play a role in this process.

I attended such a forum in September 2014 in Duluth. The topic of the forum was “Protecting the Public from Mercury in the St. Louis River”. In this forum, an official from the MPCA denied the role of sulfates and said that it had to be something else but she had no idea what the “something else” is or could be. Later on, a member of the Science Panel of this forum showed how the conversion process works and made the point that, out of all the variables involved in the conversion process, sulfates are the only variable that can be controlled. I and most of the audience know this; certainly the sponsoring and participating organizations of this forum know and yet, the MPCA doesn’t believe it?

Of course the MPCA knows but paychecks depend on keeping the public in the dark. The only hope is that the USEPA steps in and provides some adult supervision to end this nonsense.

Dennis Good

Britt, Minn.