Legislators in St. Paul are proposing to revise water quality rules affecting wild rice as a way to speed permitting of major mining projects in northeastern Minnesota.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Pike, has introduced legislation that would relax the standard to a maximum of 50 milligrams/liter. A House committee was poised this week to push that to 250 mg/l, but Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, was successful in passing an amendment that restored the 50 mg/l limit sought by Rukavina. Meanwhile, some legislators are pushing to prohibit the PCA from enforcing its current standard until an ongoing study of the issue is completed.

Mike Robertson, a consultant for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said the research will take at least two years, and that companies shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to meet a goal that might change.      

 “How can they design and implement treatment technologies when they don’t know what the standard will be?” asked Robertson, who is coordinating industry response to the sulfate problem.

Not surprisingly, the suggestion has raised the ire of environmentalists, who want to keep the state’s water quality rules intact, particularly the standard for sulfate levels in waters the produce wild rice. “The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and our northeast legislators are willing to ignore science and put people’s health at risk in order to facilitate industries that cannot meet our current state laws,” said Elanne Palcich, an environmental activist from Chisholm, who testified before the Senate’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee recently.

Industry supporters argue that the current sulfate standard of 10 mg/l is not well-supported by scientific evidence and is too costly for industry, and even many municipalities that discharge wastewater, to meet.

“Nobody knows if ten is the right number,” said Rukavina, who is proposing 50 mg/l as an interim standard while the PCA completes more research to determine an appropriate threshold.

Rukavina said the current standard threatens more than just the future of copper-nickel mining in the state. He noted that many Iron Range ore pits contain water with sulfate levels well above the current standard and he said a number of projects, including the Essar Steel project and the expansion of Keetac, could be stymied if the standard isn’t revised.

Even so, Rukavina said he’d support the current standard if the scientific research supports it, and as long as it is enforced equally across the state. He noted that hundreds of municipal wastewater systems can’t meet the standard currently. “It isn’t just industry, and we shouldn’t just single out mining companies for enforcement,” he said.

The sulfate standard has actually been on the books in Minnesota for nearly 40 years, but the state’s Pollution Control Agency only recently began to enforce the rule. It became a major issue during Minntac’s effort to permit the discharge of water from its tailings basin north of Virginia into the Dark and Sandy River watersheds. That’s prompted mining companies in northern Minnesota to push for changes and state regulators to begin more serious study of sulfate’s effect on wild rice.

To be sure, Minnesota’s sulfate standard for wild rice waters is stringent— indeed, it’s likely the strictest in the country. The federal government sets a drinking water standard of 250 mg/l, but that standard is based on considerations like odor and taste. Other states in the Upper Midwest have sulfate standards that are many times higher than Minnesota’s, and some, like Wisconsin, have no set standard at all. Many of these states, however, don’t have significant natural wild rice production as is still the case in Minnesota.

Both sides in the debate here can point to scientific studies to bolster their position. The state’s original standard of 10 mg/l is based on numerous studies conducted by John Moyle, who worked for the state’s Department of Conservation in the 1940s and 50s.

Among the extensive research conducted by Moyle was a survey of wild rice lakes and the conditions that existed at the time. Moyle found that wild rice lakes shared a number of characteristics, including low levels of sulfates. He also noted that lakes and streams with sulfate levels above 50 mg/l showed limited wild rice production.

Since then, studies have either confirmed or contradicted Moyle’s findings. Moyle later refined his work, and suggested that sulfate levels alone are probably not the sole factor, but that sulfate’s presence with other chemicals, such as magnesium, may be more critical to wild rice production. In addition, he found that higher sulfate levels can contribute to the production of more hydrogen sulfide, a toxin that kills many aquatic plants, including wild rice.

Research conducted for the Minntac discharge request did conclude that high levels of sulfates seeping from Minntac’s tailings basin may be responsible for the decline of rice beds on the Sandy River, in Pike Township.

A controlled experiment conducted by the University of Minnesota-Duluth, for the Minntac request, largely supported Moyle’s findings. But other studies have drawn the opposite conclusion. One study conducted in north central Minnesota found productive stands of wild rice growing in waters with sulfate concentrations as high as 250 mg/l.

The conflicting research provides fodder for all sides in the debate. While the PCA is currently conducting a new study, it remains unclear whether it will be able to provide a definitive finding— which throws the issue into the political arena.

Environmentalists are fighting any change in the law. Palcich said the U.S. is now in a race-to-the-bottom, competing with many less developed countries to relax environmental standards. “I guess they believe the way to attract industry is to put our laws on par with those of Third World countries.”

Link to mercury

Palcich and others note that sulfate levels are not just a factor in wild rice production. The chemical is also known to facilitate the conversion of elemental mercury into methylized mercury, which can accumulate in the aquatic food chain. That fact is responsible for most of the fish consumption advisories for northern Minnesota lakes and streams.

“The taconite industry of northeast Minnesota has left the St. Louis River watershed so contaminated for mercury that the MPCA cannot figure out a plan to clean it up,” said Palcich.