MPCA’s draft Minntac permit at issue at information session

VIRGINIA— Officials from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, or MPCA, heard concerns and skepticism here on Tuesday during an informational meeting to answer questions on its controversial new draft water discharge permit for the Minntac tailings basin. After a brief presentation on the proposed permit, MPCA officials took questions for more than an hour.
The 8,700-acre basin contains billions of gallons of recycled industrial water that is high in sulfates and other chemicals that have been discharged into surrounding watersheds for decades, either at the surface or through underground seepage. The issue has been a point of contention between those who want the pollution cleaned up and those who fear the cost of doing so could prompt U.S. Steel, which operates Minntac, to close the facility.
The MPCA has negotiated with U.S. Steel for more than 25 years to begin to address the sulfate problem in its tailings basin, but the company has successfully delayed taking action to date.
While the company now appears willing to undertake some major steps to address its pollution problem, many of the approximately 250 people who attended Tuesday’s session questioned the 45-year time frame the MPCA appeared willing to give U.S. Steel to complete its clean-up.
MPCA officials pushed back on those concerns, noting that the proposed permit calls for some of the most significant pollution control measures ever taken by a company in the state. That includes the construction of a “first-of-its-kind” water treatment system on the west side of the basin, where it discharges into the Dark River. That system would need to be in place and operable within six years of the issuance of the permit and would need to be compliant with a discharge limit of 41.4 mg/l of sulfate. While that’s higher than the 10 mg/l sulfate limit enacted in Minnesota for wild rice waters, the MPCA’s Scott Kyser explained that dilution from uncontaminated downstream waters should reduce the concentration to 10 mg/l or less by the time the waters reach Dark Lake, where wild rice is known to exist.
On the basin’s east side, the draft permit would require the company to construct a cutoff wall approximately three miles long and as deep as 100 feet in the ground to prevent the seepage of polluted groundwater into the Sandy River system. That watershed ultimately flows into Lake Vermilion and its downstream waters where sulfate levels have increased well above background levels in recent years, raising concerns about mercury methylation in fish. Sulfate is known to feed microbes that convert elemental mercury into methyl mercury, a highly toxic chemical that readily accumulates in aquatic food chains.
U.S. Steel would have 11 years to build the cutoff wall, which is expected to slow the seepage of additional polluted groundwater, the company will need to establish wells between the cutoff wall and downstream waters to pump and treat the plume of contaminated groundwater that has spread outward from the tailings basin’s east side over the years. It’s a similar approach typical of Superfund clean-ups, noted one MPCA official.
The draft permit sets a 10 mg/l limit on discharges on the east side of the basin, but modeling undertaken by U.S. Steel suggests it will take 45 years to clean up the downstream stream sufficiently to achieve that standard.
While the proposed clean-up appears to be ambitious, the timelines were a concern to many at Tuesday’s meeting. Matt Norton, of Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, thanked the MPCA officials present for finally enforcing the wild rice standard, but he urged them to reduce the timeline, also known as a schedule of compliance, from the anticipated 45 years. Courtney Ahlers-Nelson, industrial division director at the MPCA, said the agency will be requiring updated modeling from U.S. Steel in hopes of reducing that timeline.
Others from the public expressed skepticism that U.S. Steel is actually willing to engage in the clean-up effort proposed. To date, the company has been able to largely fend off efforts by state regulators to enforce pollution controls on the company, particularly for sulfate, which is contained in the ore body that the company mines and is an inevitable byproduct of its processing.
“Enforcement is not something we’ve done a lot of, I acknowledge that,” said Ahlers-Nelson in response to the concerns expressed by one of dozens of area residents who spoke during the evening.
While many seemed to want faster compliance, others raised concerns about the potential economic impacts of requiring Minntac to undertake an expensive clean-up effort. Eric Forsman, of Duluth, asked whether the MPCA had undertaken an economic analysis of the costs associated with implementation of the new permit. Ahlers-Nelson said the economics aren’t considered directly unless the company were to apply for a variance, which now appears unlikely. She noted that the parameters within the proposed permit were developed in collaboration with the company.
Others picked up on the same theme. John Arbogast, with Steelworkers District 11, said the Iron Range is in trouble, with laid off miners and financial problems in area cities and school districts. “The MPCA knows how bad the Iron Range is doing,” he said. “If we lose Minntac, we’re going to lose the Iron Range.”
Others challenged that view, noting that such concerns have been used for decades to resist attempts to clean up mining pollution in the region.
While the cleanup is likely to be expensive, MPCA’s Kyser noted that the work involved amounts to multiple construction projects that will provide significant employment in the area, potentially for several years.
One key element to the project that was never discussed was the price tag for the work that would be undertaken as part of the clean-up. MPCA officials rebuffed efforts by the Timberjay to get more information on Tuesday, but additional followup is planned.
Despite the contentious issues involved, the meeting was calm and respectful throughout and offered an opportunity for the large crowd to learn substantially more about the permit and its implications.
Those who want to learn more, or comment on the draft permit, can go to the MPCA’s website at https://comment.pca.state.mn.us/us-steel-corp-mn-ore-operations-minntac-tailings-basin-wastewater-permit. Comments will be accepted through Oct. 12.