A proposal re: PolyMet; try IRMA

The reports we've read suggest there were about 1500 people in attendance at the Duluth meeting on the proposed permit to mine for the PolyMet NorthMet project. Those same reports estimated that the attendees ran about 2 to 1 against the permit as drafted.

From what we've seen thus far, if the proposed permit, and any and all other permits related to the proposed project, aren't been written in such a way that they can withstand strong legal challenges, they may not be worth the paper they're printed on. Even more time will be lost before the issues are resolved, if they ever are under the current system. This could make the legal battles surrounding Minnesota's Reserve Mining discharge to Lake Superior look like a (we almost wrote "tea party," but that has too many conflicting connotations) walk in the park. And, all of this is occurring at a time when one of Minnesota's most revered corporations, 3M, is being portrayed by Minnesota's current Attorney General as callous and irresponsible for the way they dissed of their wastes. Social licenses to pollute with impunity are becoming harder to come buy. (No, that's not a typo.)

The world has changed a hell of a lot since the passage of the General Mining Act of 1872. We've learned that the sources of needed materials are not limitless and are declining in quality,  the environmental sinks into which we can dispose of our wastes are overflowing more and more. Sources and sinks, and the flows between them, are what jobs and the economy and environmental protection are all about, so we can maintain a sustainable earth fit for jobs and economies. Even many in the international mining sector are beginning to recognize the need for behavior that is much more responsible than historical standards called for. That's part of the reason the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance [IRMA] is beginning to launch its certification system this year.

Jay Cooke State Park, downstream from proposed tailings dam

Photo by J. Harrington

If we were major investors in the PolyMet NorthMet project (which we're not), at this point in the permitting process we would be insisting that PolyMet management volunteer to be a test case for implementing IRMA or something like it but more acceptable. If we were Governor Dayton, or his Department of Natural Resources Commissioner, we would look into the feasibility of including participation in IRMA, or an alternative, as a condition of any permit to mine. If Minnesota has world class environmental requirements for mining, there'll be little, if any, additional effort on PolyMet's part to meet a standard for responsible and sustainable mining. If Minnesota's current requirements don't cover everything in such a standard (which we believe may be the case), then Minnesota will gain additional protections if the permit is ever finalized.

Among alternative systems available, for example, is Canada's Toward Sustainable Mining [TSM]. The Mount Polley tailings dam failure has triggered efforts to improve the tailings management practices in the TSM requirements. A critical point, however, is that any standard include independent certification systems, with compliance verified by a third party, to offer a substantially higher degree of assurance that required environmental protection requirements will be met than the current system Minnesota has, where some permits for taconite facilities haven't been updated for decades.

It may be that miners and environmentalists in Minnesota would prefer to continue to battle, project by project, for decades, even forever. Perhaps some participants would rather fight than win. Alternatively, it might offer an opportunity to get better environmental results, on a shorter time line, if Minnesota and the copper-nickel mining sector decided to try a better system with more transparency than we have at the moment. How energy efficient is Minnesota's mining sector? What other critical issues may not be included in our current permit requirements?

Salvage

Amy Clampitt

     
Daily the cortege of crumpled 
defunct cars 
goes by by the lasagna-
layered flatbed 
truckload: hardtop 

reverting to tar smudge,
wax shine antiqued to crusted 
winepress smear, 
windshield battered to
intact ice-tint, a rarity

fresh from the Pleistocene. 
I like it; privately 
I find esthetic 
satisfaction in these 
ceremonial removals

from the category of
received ideas
to regions where pigeons’ 
svelte smoke-velvet
limousines, taxiing 

in whirligigs, reclaim 
a parking lot,
and the bag-laden
hermit woman, disencumbered 
of a greater incubus,

the crush of unexamined
attitudes, stoutly
follows her routine,
mining the mountainsides
of our daily refuse

for artifacts: subversive
re-establishing
with each arcane
trash-basket dig
the pleasures of the ruined.

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