Tailings ponds. Swiss-owned PolyMet Mining has built a yet-to-be licensed mill to exploit its mineral rights to extract copper and nickel near Babbit. Are the five circular tailings ponds sufficient to protect downstream water? It turns now that a 2018 state permit was based on a flawed communication from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Also, EPA ignored Indian tribal concerns.
EPA lapses put state water permits in limbo
The state Pollution Control agency has suspended its permits for the $1 billion PolyMet copper-nickel mine near Babbit because it was misled by lapses in a federal environmental impact report. The state agency had relied on the report, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in issuing state licenses in 2018. Now there is more uncertainty about whether the stalled mine project will get back in track. Environmentalists want the permits revoked, no ifs, ands or buts. Elise Larson of the lobbying group Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said there can be no doubt but that the PolyMet water permit was rushed and the public was kept in the dark about EPA staff concerns. People downstream are endangered, Larson said.
The Trump shadow
The PolyMet copper mine was among many projects opposed by environmentalists but green-lighted during the Trump presidency. Trump cabinet members and other appointees were drawn from industry and explicitly reversed environment-protection policies and created a mileau conducive to overlooking environmental problems. Examples: Trump’s EPA administrator was Scott Pruitt, who rejected scientific consensus on climate change and opposed what he called earlier “EPA activism.” On Trump’s cabinet as Interior secretary was Ryan Zinke, who opened more federal lands for oil, gas and mineral exploration and extraction.