ELY – “This is a very exciting time for all of us who love the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” Becky Rom, the national chairperson for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, said at a recent Tuesday Group presentation.
Her comments came in the immediate aftermath of the Biden administration’s recent move to protect the BWCAW by prohibiting the issuance of any new mineral leases on 225,378 acres of the Superior National Forest.
The two-year freeze is in place while the U.S. Forest Service studies the impacts of a 20-year mineral withdrawal. Twin Metals officials vowed to appeal the decision.
In addition, the state of Minnesota is also moving forward to protect the wilderness ecosystem “from the greatest threat that it has ever faced,” that of sulfide-ore copper mining in the headwaters of the BWCAW and the Voyageurs National Park, Rom added.
She walked the mostly friendly crowd through the steps of protecting the wilderness that have occurred in the last couple of weeks.
“This creates a tremendous opportunity for you, the people, to be involved in protecting the wilderness,” Rom said.
The Biden administration acted in response to broad concerns about potential impacts of mining on the wilderness area’s watershed, fish and wildlife, tribal trust and treaty rights, and the nearly $100 million annual local recreation economy.
The Forest Service filed its application for a mineral withdrawal with the Department of the Interior earlier this month, but the application wasn’t official until the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees federal mineral leasing, had given its approval last week.
The decision effectively restarts a process that was aborted by the Trump administration in 2018. The Obama administration had initiated the withdrawal process in late 2016, but the Trump administration canceled the two-year study just prior to its completion and refused to release any of the results of the analysis, despite calls to do so by members of Congress and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters is focused on protecting and preserving the 4.3 million acre Quetico-Superior ecosystem that consists of the Superior National Forest, including the 1.1-million-acre BWCAW, Quetico Provincial Park and Voyaguers National Park.
She highlighted the risks to the wilderness areas around the Ely area if sulfide mining were to be allowed.
“When we set out organizing the Campaign, which now has over 400 businesses, conservation groups and hunting and fishing groups, we agreed that this was just the wrong place for sulfide-ore copper mining,” Rom said. “We united around a goal, a permanent ban on sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters.”
She outlined the organization’s four-part strategy:
Federal administrative mineral withdrawal for 20 years on federal lands and minerals in the BWCAW watershed, including the canceling of two Twin Metals leases.
Federal legislation to permanently ban mining on federal lands in the BWCAW watershed.
State administrative process to amend Minnesota’s nonferrous mining regulations and ban mining in the BWCA watershed.
State legislation to permanently ban mining on state lands in the BWCAW watershed and prohibit issuance of mining permits.
“We set out through science and involvement of people like you to convince the Forest Service that the headwaters of the Boundary Waters was the wrong place (for this mining),” she said. “Over the last nine years, being involved with this, there really is no other place in America than is more wrong than this place. We have a water-based ecosystem. It has the cleanest water in America. It is the backbone of our regional economy.”
The latest decision allows the Biden administration to complete the study and make a final withdrawal determination within the remaining three-plus years of its current term of office.
The Forest Service report and recommendation goes back to the Interior Department, where a decision is made. “We hope that the Interior Secretary recognizes that the two existing leases are unlawful,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness sued the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and challenged the nonferrous mining rules in Minnesota.
“The rules are fundamentally flawed,” Rom said. “Under the rules, the Boundary Waters is a place where no mining should occur, consistent with a 1976 state law that prohibits mining in the Boundary Waters, but allows mining in the upstream half of the Rainy River watershed.”
In 2020, the organization filed a lawsuit under Section 10 of the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. “That section states that anyone can challenge a state policy or law or regulation claiming that it is inadequate to protect the natural resources from pollution and impairment,” she said. “We took the science and made our case that says mining in the Rainy River headwaters fails to protect the Boundary Waters. The DNR agreed with our argument that we established our prima facie case.”
Twin Metals intervened with appeals at least three times. “We’re still fighting one of those appeals,” Rom added. “The court, on Sept. 13, ordered this matter be remanded to the DNR.”
Based on the Sept. 13 order by the judge, the DNR had three weeks to establish its review process order. On Oct. 4, the order was issued and will look at two questions: Should nonferrous mining be banned, and are the nonferrous mining rules adequate to protect the Boundary Waters, according to Rom.
A mining supporter at the presentation argued that mining is necessary in the Boundary Waters watershed “or else we will have to import the minerals needed for green energy, mainly from China, who could cut us off on a whim.”
“If there is a national emergency, according to the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act, the president could allow mining in the Boundary Waters according to Section 11,” the supporter noted.
Rom noted that the minerals Twin Metals proposes to mine are “low grade” deposits. “They have a pittance of minerals. It is an irrelevant source of critical minerals for America’s green economy,” she said.
Rom used cobalt as an example of a critical mineral needed by the United States to grow its green economy. Twin Metals, according to the company, could supply 1.5 percent of the U.S. need. The Biden administration is looking at a secure supply chain of critical minerals, including Canada, Australia, Norway and other traditional allies. “Just one mine in Australia has enough cobalt to supply the entire U.S. needs for cobalt for 270 years. So, we could destroy the Boundary Waters for 1.5 percent of our cobalt, or get our cobalt from Australia.”
Rom added that the mined Twin Metals materials, which would rumble through downtown Ely at the rate of at least 100 big trucks every day, would eventually make it to China for processing. “Then they are sold on the world market, so we would still be buying our minerals from China,” Rom said.
A 30-day public comment period starts on Nov. 9 for the state case. The federal case 90-day public comment period started Oct. 21 and expires on Jan. 20.
“You lucky people have a federal process for commenting and a state process, too,” Rom said. “You now have an opportunity to protect the place you love after all these years.”