SAINT PAUL - WaterLegacy, a non-profit organization formed to protect Minnesota's waters and the communities who rely on them, learned today that their effort, in collaboration with nine other environmental and faith-based groups, to obtain a 90-day public comment period (legal requirement is 45 days) for the PolyMet strip mine project in Minnesota has succeeded. Members of the public will be able comment to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the proposed copper sulfide strip mine draft EIS through February 3, 2010.
WaterLegacy attorney, Paula Maccabee, stated, "The good news is that members of the public will have at least 90 days to comment on the PolyMet strip mine draft EIS. The bad news is that the proposed strip mine is likely to result in thousands of years of acid mine drainage, increase mercury contamination of fish, destroy wetlands and habitats, and put Minnesota taxpayers at risk for hundreds of millions of dollars in Superfund liabilities."
WaterLegacy pointed out that both the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Indian tribal experts involved in the process as cooperating agencies believe that the draft EIS is inadequate. Key issues include:
1) use of fatally flawed water quality analysis;
2) perpetual water pollution inconsistent with state mining laws;
3) failure to address the risk of catastrophic collapse of tailings dumps;
4) failure to include an environmental and economic analysis of the land exchange needed to proceed with the strip mine; and
5) failure to discuss financial assurances to protect taxpayers from footing the bill for future strip mine water pollution.
Public hearings on the PolyMet draft EIS will be held in Aurora, Minnesota on December 9 and in Blaine, Minnesota on December 10, 2009. See waterlegacy.org
WaterLegacy Obtains 90-Day Public Comment Period for PolyMet Environmental Impact Statement
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WaterLegacy and Environmental Groups Obtain 90-Day Public Comment Period for PolyMet Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Water Legacy Charges Draft EIS is Wholly Inadequate
WaterLegacy, November 3, 2009
Straight to the Source
[ Download WLPressRelease11-3-09.pdf ]
