REGIONAL—The political divide over the future of copper-nickel mining has now embroiled a new cast of characters: the St. Louis County Board and officials with the North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District.

The county board, last Tuesday, went against a recommendation by their own administrator and slashed funding for the conservation district in what SWCD officials see as retaliation against their technical staff member, Paul Ojanen, who has worked for the SWCD since March 2008.

Ojanen upset some members of the county board in December 2011 after he penned a personal letter to the editor in the Duluth News Tribune, critical of any government official who supported the PolyMet mining proposal because of the company’s close ties to Glencore, a Swiss commodities trading company. The company was founded by Marc Rich, the once-fugitive tax evader who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Ojanen never mentioned his position with the SWCD in the letter, but during a county board meeting last June, Commissioners Keith Nelson and Mike Formsan, both pro-mining advocates, introduced a resolution to cut off funding for the North St. Louis SWCD just the same. The board never voted on the resolution, but it reinforced concerns among SWCD officials that the board might still retaliate over Ojanen’s views.

Just three months earlier, Nelson spoke at a SWCD board meeting about complaints he said he’s received about Ojanen from some landowners unhappy with what they view as overly-rigorous enforcement of wetlands rules. Nelson also cited Ojanen’s letter to the editor, and said it created a lack of trust on the part of commissioners and suggested that the board should think about whether it might be best to replace him.

“It’s all a vendetta,” said Peggy Pearson, the chair of the North St. Louis County SWCD, referring to the board’s latest action. “There’s no doubt about it.”

Pearson disputed the claims of county commissioners who say they have received many complaints about Ojanen and the way he enforces wetlands rules. For one, notes Pearson, the SWCD has no enforcement authority and has very little discretion in the work that it does undertake. She said the SWCD takes in reports of wetlands violations, and Ojanen develops restoration plans where necessary, but leaves the actual enforcement to the Department of Natural Resources or other law enforcement officials.

And she said the restoration orders themselves are closely prescribed by law and must be approved by the Board of Water and Soil Resources, or BOWSER, before they have any legal force. She said Ojanen has done his job well and that the district has no cause to fire him. “You can’t fire somebody for stating his personal opinion,” she added.

Pearson said no landowners have ever complained to the SWCD board, which is an elected board independent of the county. “Wouldn’t you think we’d be the ones to get the complaints?” asked Pearson. She said she has asked Nelson for a list of the specific complaints he says he has received, but that the commissioner never followed through with any information.

Instead, Nelson has criticized Pearson for nepotism because Ojanen is her first cousin. Pearson calls the charge ridiculous and said she did not take part in the decision to hire Ojanen.

Commissioner Forsman denies that retaliation played any role in his decision to cut the North St. Louis SWCD funding from last year’s level of $49,000, to just $29,000 for this year. The county board left funding for the South St. Louis SWCD at $49,000, but Forsman said that was justified given that the region is still recovering from flood damage from heavy rains last spring.

Forsman said Ojanen’s letter was “water under the bridge,” and had nothing to do with the funding decision.

Forsman said the $20,000 that the county board cut from the northern SWCD budget could still be restored to the district’s budget, but only if officials there propose specific projects that county board members support.

Forsman acknowledged that the decision could be seen as an effort to micromanage the work of the SWCD. “Maybe we are being a little more micromanaging.” But he compared the situation to a young apple tree, which needed more support to grow upright. “We felt the tree was swaying a little and it needed more guidance.”

Loss of services

The funding cut will have implications for rural residents of northern St. Louis County, and it represents an unusual circumstance in which county board members from the northern half of the county push to cut funds for their own constituents. “It’s the residents of northern St. Louis County that will be affected by this,” said Pearson.

Ojanen said he spends a considerable amount of time assisting landowners on a wide range of issues, but that the cutoff of county funds prevents him from doing so in the future. “We can no longer assist county citizens, or direct them through the sometimes confusing maze of local government,” said Ojanen.

That’s unfortunate, according to Barb Berglund, an Ely attorney who has assisted lakeshore owners who have run afoul of state wetland rules.

Berglund said she’s worked with Ojanen on several projects and found him friendly, knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. “The DNR just issues citations for violations, but then you have to go to Soil and Water to find out how to fix the problem.”

Berglund said the process can be extremely confusing and often involves dealing with a number of agencies, including the DNR, the state Pollution Control Agency, and the county. “But Paul is the only one who will come on the site and really help you,” said Berglund. “We could use three or four more Paul Ojanens up here.”

Ojanen said many of the services that Berglund describes may no longer be available because of the funding reduction. “We can’t visit, or write plans or help them find the right vegetation for their shoreline. We can’t help them find the right trees for their landscape, find them a logger, or answer their questions about a mysterious insect infestation,” he added.

Forsman said the funding cut will prompt SWCD to focus more on “educational” efforts, and he said the office receptionist can handle many of the more basic questions that landowners in northern St. Louis County might have.