What’s normal for me and mine?

I thought any remaining snow would have been erased by recent warm temperatures and rain, and I was wrong. There are still scattered patches of snow along the roads and in shaded areas of fields. The few piles on our property disappeared sometime over the weekend. The “wet spot” in our back yard is actually showing a little water. Spring conditions are approximating something like normal.

we don’t have this much water this year

Photo by J. Harrington

We’re well beyond the main path of the eclipse, and the sky is covered with a thick layer of clouds. No mid-afternoon darkness for us, nor have we seen any fundamentalists floating skyward in the Rapture. Again, an approximation of “normal.”

During a visit this morning to our favorite local book store, the Better Half and I each picked up some more reading material. That’s also as normal for us. If I keep away from politics and international affairs, what can pass for normal sometimes prevails. I think a message is lurking in there, somewhere.

Last Friday’s newsletter from Trout Unlimited [TU] reminded me of something that’s far from normal. The basic legislation governing mining in the US “was passed when Ulysses S. Grant was president in 1872.” TU, among others, is supporting revisions. Did you know that:

Unlike every other commodity produced from our public lands, there is no royalty or tax on rare earth elements, critical minerals, and luxury items such as gold and silver. 

By contrast, since 1977, coal mining has provided over $11 billion from a tax on each ton of produced coal. That funding is used to clean up abandoned coal mines across Appalachia and parts of the western United States.

You might want to read the whole TU article and think about contacting your members of congress to see if they support an update and, if not, why not. One of the basic principles of environmental management is supposed to be the “Polluter pays.” (Don’t talk to me about agriculture, please.)

Something that’s probably missing from any mining revisions is any reference to the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA). That’s a major oversight in my opinion. See what you think.

It seems our world has gotten too complex and contentious for us to get away with simply voting for our party’s candidate and forgetting about politics. As long as we don’t get too carried away, that’s probably good for US. To paraphrase an old title, “No One is an Island.”

No Man Is An Island

John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)

---

---

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. 

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Mine, all mine (almost)!

Last evening, for the first time in a long while, I saw a pair of cardinals visit the feeder on the back deck. After days of clouds and flocks of dark-eyed juncos, the splash of bright color was heart-warming. Maybe it’s worth encouraging freeloading squirrels by hanging the kind of feeder preferred by cardinals (and squirrels).

cardinal pair on snowy rail

Photo by J. Harrington

Despite below freezing temperatures today, there’s enough warmth in the sun to begin melting snow, especially where there’s a dark color (e..g., tree trunks and plowed roads) to absorb and concentrate that warmth. I’m hoping most of the ground will again be bare by Easter.

We now come to a sudden transition from observations about weather to touch on an economic and environment issue that is significant here in Minnesota's Congressional District 8: mining, in particular, iron mining. There are those who have asserted that Minnesota’s mining rules and regulations are among “the most stringent in the world,” or words to that effect. And yet, to the best of my knowledge, neither Minnesota nor the mining companies that operate here, are active participants in the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), which has recently announced a webinar to review the results of audits of two iron mines in Africa. {The obvious question that occurs to me is, if Minnesota’s requirements are among the best, how would an IRMA audit of a Minnesota mine compare to those done in Africa?) Here’s an extract from an email I received yesterday:

First IRMA Audits of African Iron Ore Mines Released

Anglo American subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore's Kolomela, Sishen both achieve IRMA 75

Webinar to discuss the audits on 4 April

Today, March 27th, IRMA released independent audits of Kumba Iron Ore's Kolomela and Sishen (IRMA 75) iron ore mines in South Africa.  

IRMA 75 means the audit firm ERM-CVS verified that the operations met all critical requirements of the IRMA Standard, as well as at least 75% of the Standard’s criteria in each of the four areas: social responsibility, environmental responsibility, business integrity, and planning for positive legacies.

To learn more, join us April 4th for a webinar about the meaning of the audit results, and how the increased transparency an IRMA audit provides can be used by stakeholders to drive more responsible mining:

Many of Minnesota’s mining proponents are quick to point out that elsewhere in the world, mining doesn’t have to meet Minnesota’s standards. There’s often an uneasy silence about the recent court decisions about how the states’s regulatory agencies have enforced those standards (or not). Wouldn’t it make sense to require all mining operations in the state to participate in IRMA so we would be able to compare not just standards, but in the ground and in the community results?

Locally, MCEA is beginning to broach such questions with a special event on Monday, April 1, on

Global Mining Justice: Water, Climate, and Community Advocacy from Honduras to Minnesota

I hope you'll look into either or both of these events. As Carl Sandburg reminds us, mining is important.

IRON

By Carl Sandburg

GUNS,
Long, steel guns,
Pointed from the war ships
In the name of the war god.
Straight, shining, polished guns,
Clambered over with jackies in white blouses,
Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth,
Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses,
Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.

Shovels,
Broad, iron shovels,
Scooping out oblong vaults,
Loosening turf and leveling sod.

     I ask you
     To witness--
     The shovel is brother to the gun.

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Some errors of our era

We finally got lots of rain last night. The telltale puddle in the driveway was close to full this morning. Yesterday brought several severe storms to our north with winds and hail bringing down lots of leaves and some trees. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general has announced that “the era of global boiling has arrived.” Nevertheless the Biden administration has chosen to not (yet?) declare a climate emergency. Neither have I read that there are any pre-established triggers or criteria for such a declaration.

Meanwhile, closer to home, yet another aquifer puncture has been discovered along Enbridge's Line 3. I’ve not yet learned how all the fines in the world will actually restore the environment, sort of similar to how long it’s estimated to take for earth’s climate to begin to return to “normal” if we ever minimize greenhouse gas discharges. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is being sued to keep it from requiring approved manure management plans for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations [CAFOs]. In Minnesota, I wonder if there’s any state agency that does as much to support metals recycling as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources does to support metals mining.

recycling before extraction

Photo by J. Harrington

Back when Manifest Destiny was aspirational, the colonizing powers gave away land to get the country “developed.” In 1972, the Clean Water Act Amendments updated and expanded the “Rivers and Harbors Act (1899), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1948), the Water Quality Act (1965), and the Refuse Act (1970)” Folks are still debating the interpretation and coverage of that legislation. There has been no comparable update to the Mining Act of 1872. We have long “settled” and colonized the country from coast to coast. We no longer need to promote extractive industries as an economic development strategy. Protecting and restoring clean air, water, food sovereignty and, probably, manufacturing are more critical priorities if we wish to have a survivable future, let alone a sustainable one.

There’s an old saying in the planning profession: “More of the same never solved a problem.” The same is true of law and politics. We can and must do better and stop the “same old, same old” solutions.

Value Added

By Stephen Sandy

No one knew what the stones like squatting frogs

signified. There they were, fuming in rows, out

of the ground; every critic had his explanation

or hers. But—we had to remember—they

 

came to nothing, every one; those large stones

out of the earth served the systems

of those who considered them, as explaining

something about the past it was important

 

for the explainer to explain. And yet

no one had any idea truly; there was no

basis in fact for any view of them, and

they remained like their origins—or like

 

smiling Olmec babies, sweet but ominous figures

come from the earth to reproach us, almost

cheerfully, for our ignorance—a mystery, just

as the probe of our feelings came up with nothing.

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Mine, all mine

There’s an article in the Star Tribune that misses several significant points relative to its purported subject. The head states: Minnesota locked in global dilemma: More copper and nickel are needed, but mine development slow. That’s slightly off the mark, but not as misleading as the lede: “There's a not-in-my-backyard mentality surrounding new hardrock mine projects.” 

If the reporters had thought a bit, they might have noted that the global dilemma could have been avoided if the oil and gas industry had been honest and more forthcoming decades ago about the implications of consuming their products. Of course, the world leaders have been less than dynamic in responding to the scientific evidence and reports about the effects of greenhouse gasses and climate weirding. The real “not in my backyard” issue is global population growth accompanied by a capitalist economy dependent on quantitative rather than qualitative growth to provide return on investment.

There’s another aspect though that is more germane to Minnesota, and the rest of US. Some years ago the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) was begun. It has now reached the point where their standards form the basis against which mining activities can be audited. According to the IRMA web site, none of the audits completed or underway at this writing is in Minnesota or the United States. This is perhaps not surprising since the  lack of systems planning we are pursuing results in a national approach of building renewable generating capacity far from the centers of consumption and lack the transmission capacity to get the product to market, so to speak. We’re as likely to insist mining projects in this country meet stringent international standards as we are to place lots more emphasis on roof-top solar and micro-grids. Either would seem to be a better approach but would upset some of the major players, no doubt.

mining leaves many scars on the earth

Photo by J. Harrington

Aaron Brown, someone much closer to the Iron Range mining issues than I, recently had this and more to say:

Since the dawn of capitalism on this continent, people of northern Minnesota contended with challenging economic conditions. This is true whether we live in Eveleth or Onigum. Up and down. Boom and bust. We share these experiences.

We should be rightly concerned that the powerful deem the people of northern Minnesota less valuable than the logs and ore that define our manufactured regional identity. When companies are denied logs and ore, the powerful speak out. When people are denied health care, affordable housing and dignity, the powerful suddenly show remarkable restraint of tongue and pen. 

Since the evidence is growing daily that the climate scientists who try to inform and warn us of what we’re doing to ourselves, actually, allowing the global corporations to do to us, are telling the truth, maybe it’s time to focus more on working together to bring the corporatocracy, including its political toadies, to heal and spend less energy pointing fingers at various elements of the people who do the work and/or suffer the most while the profits continue to accrue to the 1%.

Love in a Time of Climate Change

By Craig Santos Perez

recycling Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII"

I don't love you as if you were rare earth metals,

conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause

war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable

species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

I love you as one loves the last seed saved

within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,

and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens

from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.

I love you without knowing how or when this world

will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.

I love you like this because we'll only survive

in the nitrogen rich compost of our embrace,

so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,

so close that your sea rises with my heat. 

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Another mixed bag

Local farms are in the midst of a first cutting of hay. Round bales are popping up everywhere except corn or soybean fields or where the cut hay is still drying in the field. I should have guessed that this spell of rainless weather would benefit someone doing something. Someday soon I expect to get my schedule and calendar clear enough to actually go stand in a river and wave a stick. Meanwhile, there’s decent, if overly dry, weather to enjoy and various flowers coming into bloom and a couple of dogs that provide entertaining distractions plus restorative affection. 

hay baling time

Photo by J. Harrington

We’re in an interlude between spring greens and peak summer seasons at our community supported agriculture farm. Their summer season doesn’t begin until early July. There’s a recent article in The Guardian on eating local food that begins with an assessment of food miles before it gets around to looking at the idea that local foods are an alternative to industrial farming and confined animal feed operations (CAFOs). My quick read of that article helped me remember how easy it is these days to focus on a less significant aspect of an issue and how little attention gets paid to answering the question “What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?” While I was putzing on a different project this morning, I did some quick research on logic models and wish we could make their use mandatory for all legislative efforts.

The Guardian has done a much better piece of journalism in its coverage today of Kate Raworth and her Doughnut Economics. I managed to get about 80% of the way through my copy of the book before I got distracted. After skimming the Guardian’s piece I dug out the abandoned book and will now recommence reading it. Doughnut Economics and the Doughnut Economics Action Lab [DEAL] got me thinking about yesterday’s posting here and has me wondering what the reaction in Minnesota’s mining regulatory agencies would be if Glencore (not currently, as far as I can tell, a member of IRMA) and the PolyMet folks proposed to develop their mine project in full compliance with all the guidance and audits and procedures the good folks at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance have created and used that effort to prototype new Minnesota laws and regulations for mining. Of course, that idea may make so much sense it would never be implemented, unlike Doughnut Economics and its Action Lab. Just sayin’.

Emergency Haying

Hayden Carruth

Coming home with the last load I ride standing
on the wagon tongue, behind the tractor
in hot exhaust, lank with sweat,

my arms strung
awkwardly along the hayrack, cruciform.
Almost 500 bales we’ve put up

this afternoon, Marshall and I.
And of course I think of another who hung
like this on another cross. My hands are torn

by baling twine, not nails, and my side is pierced
by my ulcer, not a lance. The acid in my throat
is only hayseed. Yet exhaustion and the way

my body hands from twisted shoulders, suspended
on two points of pain in the rising
monoxide, recall that greater suffering.

Well, I change grip and the image
fades. It’s been an unlucky summer. Heavy rains
brought on the grass tremendously, a monster crop,

but wet, always wet. Haying was long delayed.
Now is our last chance to bring in
the winter’s feed, and Marshall needs help.

We mow, rake, bale, and draw the bales
to the barn, these late, half-green,
improperly cured bales; some weigh 150 pounds

or more, yet must be lugged by the twine
across the field, tossed on the load, and then
at the barn unloaded on the conveyor

and distributed in the loft. I help—
I, the desk-servant, word-worker—
and hold up my end pretty well too; but God,

the close of day, how I fall down then. My hands
are sore, they flinch when I light my pipe.
I think of those who have done slave labor,

less able and less well prepared than I.
Rose Marie in the rye fields of Saxony,
her father in the camps of Moldavia

and the Crimea, all clerks and housekeepers
herded to the gaunt fields of torture. Hands
too bloodied cannot bear

even the touch of air, even
the touch of love. I have a friend
whose grandmother cut cane with a machete

and cut and cut, until one day
she snicked her hand off and took it
and threw it grandly at the sky. Now

in September our New England mountains
under a clear sky for which we’re thankful at last
begin to glow, maples, beeches, birches

in their first color. I look
beyond our famous hayfields to our famous hills,
to the notch where the sunset is beginning,

then in the other direction, eastward,
where a full new-risen moon like a pale
medallion hangs in a lavender cloud

beyond the barn. My eyes
sting with sweat and loveliness. And who
is the Christ now, who

if not I? It must be so. My strength
is legion. And I stand up high
on the wagon tongue in my whole bones to say

woe to you, watch out
you sons of bitches who would drive men and women
to the fields where they can only die.

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Tales told by idiots ... signifying nothing?

I’m going to skip ranting today but I want to call to your attention some likely misguided governmental expenditures. Although I don’t support polluting our environment, there seems to be logic lacking behind these efforts:

• A new report published by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found it would cost $14 billion to $28 billion over the next two decades to clean up so-called “forever chemicals” from wastewater streams across the state.


• Early estimates of the cost of removing PFAS from drinking water nationwide are about $400 billion — dwarfing the cost of settlements and cleanup costs from environmental contamination like asbestos and lead pipes or other public health settlements tied to tobacco and opioids.


• New research from Stockholm University found that the levels of PFAS in rainwater now exceed levels deemed safe by health and environment advisory agencies.

Has anyone taken a look at the global hydrologic system to determine if the removals from drinking and wastewater can be effective given the ubiquitous distribution of PFAS in rainwater? Does anyone remember the old advice about locking the barn door before the horse is stolen?

It seems to me that the kind of failed systemic approach reflected in the news items above could well be continued if voters don’t demand more from those running for election. Former Governor Carlson recently called to our attention a major failure by the Walz administration and the Democrats in this piece published by MinnPost: Promises made, promises broken when it comes to Glencore and sulfide mining in northern Minnesota. Fortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers was brought to its senses, if belatedly, and

... has revoked a key permit for the proposed NorthMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, formerly known as the PolyMet project. 

The Army Corps rescinded the permit, known as the Clean Water Act “Section 404” wetlands permit, because the agency said the permit could not “ensure compliance with the applicable downstream water quality requirements” of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, whose reservation lies downstream from the proposed mine on the St. Louis River. 

is this really “reclamation?"

Photo by J. Harrington

There is a better way to regulate mining and international efforts have identified and are improving best practices for mining operations. Isn’t it past time for Governor Walz and the Democrat-controlled legislature to replace the state’s out-dated and insufficiently effective mining regulation with the kind the Governor promised before he was elected? Or do we agree with the kind of irrational rant brought to us by the current Congressional representative of the Iron Range?

Eighth District Congressman Pete Stauber issued a blistering statement in the wake of the decision, calling it a “gift to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Stauber said the decision highlights the need for “serious mining reform to limit frivolous lawsuits and modernize the Clean Water Act permitting process” and he blamed the decision on activists in Washington. “Because of this, America will be more reliant on China, which has no environmental or labor standards and uses minerals sourced by child labor,” he stated.

Forever – is composed of Nows – (690)

By Emily Dickinson

Forever – is composed of Nows –

‘Tis not a different time –

Except for Infiniteness –

And Latitude of Home –

From this – experienced Here –

Remove the Dates – to These –

Let Months dissolve in further Months –

And Years – exhale in Years –

Without Debate – or Pause –

Or Celebrated Days –

No different Our Years would be

From Anno Dominies – 

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More of the same never solved a problem

An excerpt from an email sent by our Republican congressman this morning:

During the hearing we heard about the challenges we have in accessing our mineral resources and the harm done to our local economy by project delays. The simple truth is that the Iron Range thrives when we’re mining to our full potential, and we desperately need to get shovels in the ground.

However, if we’re going to unlock the full potential of our resources and secure our domestic mineral supply chains, we need the political will to implement permitting reform. This hearing provided a platform for my constituents to further inform my colleagues about the challenges we face to getting shovels in the ground and securing our mineral supply chains.

And now that my colleagues have seen up close the important role northern Minnesota can play in securing our nation’s mineral supply chains, I know they will help me advocate for the Iron Range in Washington.

 

can mining and clean water coexist?

Photo by J. Harrington

Apparently the good congressman is not an avid student of either history or real progress. One long time resident of the Iron Range, Aaron Brown, recently wrote that

If Minnesota is to maintain the so-called “world’s best” environmental policies regarding mining, and also fair wages and collective bargaining for its workers, it has to embrace its most important assets: expertise and quality of life. Right now, some of the best minds in mining work in Minnesota. Our education and health care systems are some of the best in the nation. These factors, taken together, could make northern Minnesota a hub for development of green steel, iron-air batteries, and innovation in sulfide mitigation.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s already happening in northern Sweden, to the tune of tens of thousands of new jobs tied to these very technologies.  (Hope for the Iron Range economy, but we must put the past behind us)

Decades before new options for green steel making or related innovations became possibilities, another Iron Ranger captured the very real problems of an economy based on extraction of natural resources. Eventually non-renewable resources will all be extracted. What then? In the meantime, life is like a roller coaster for families dependent on extraction. Shouldn’t we want better for our neighbors to the North? Shouldn’t they?

North Country Blues

Written by: Bob Dylan 

Come gather ’round friends
And I’ll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty

In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an’ the shovels they was a-humming 
’Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him

Well a long winter’s wait
From the window I watched
My friends they couldn’t have been kinder And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner

Oh the years passed again
And the givin’ was good
With the lunch bucket filled every season
What with three babies born
The work was cut down
To a half a day’s shift with no reason

Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen 
’Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin’

They complained in the East
They are paying too high
They say that your ore ain’t worth digging 
That it’s much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking 
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking

I lived by the window
As he talked to himself
This silence of tongues it was building 
Then one morning’s wake
The bed it was bare
And I’s left alone with three children

The summer is gone
The ground’s turning cold
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’
My children will go
As soon as they grow
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them

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Between anarchy and autocracy

Let’s see: past the Summer solstice; temperatures again exceeding 90℉; thunderstorms in the forecast for the evening hours; seems like Summertime! I’ve been observing that, just as one of the problems with being more than school age is one doesn’t get the summer off, one of the problems of having reached retirement age is that retirees don’t get holidays or vacations. The laws of nature and the laws of humans are far from immutable but we keep acting as if we all know what’s best and what those laws are, or should be. Should everyone get to vote on everything all the time? Would that work? Here’s an item we’ve been back and forth on depending on who’s been elected: mining near the Boundary Waters..

In case any of you want to read the Environmental Assessment report supporting the withdrawal of the Rainy River watershed from potential federal mining leases, here’s the link, courtesy of the Star Tribune’s Jennifer Bjorhus. I’m looking forward to reading the whole thing myself.

Laurentian Divide, Birch Lake

Photo by J. Harrington

As I’ve noted from time to time in these postings, I am not a lawyer but I spent many of my younger years hanging around with some. It didn’t come up at the time, but I’ve read and observed that laws are not sacred, not even sacred laws. Laws are what those in power state and interpret them to be. There’s what the law says, what proponents and opponents claim the intent of the law was or is (have you ever read a “legislative intent?”), what many police and prosecutors and plaintiffs claim the law means, and often what a jury of peers or a judge or judges assert the law means as applied to a particular set of facts. Plus, at a minimum, there’s also what happens when one law conflicts with another.

One of the better rules of thumb I ever learned was: “If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the facts are against you, argue the law. If both the law and the facts are against you, pound on the table and yell like hell.” I believe the Republicans invented the last part of that tactic.

Many people react as though they have studied law, practiced law, understand legal processes, when, in fact, listening to or reading their opinions makes one question if the person exponding is functionally literate. [Have you noticed I’m back in a “why do I spend so much time on social media?” mode?]

All of the preceding happens in ways that we as citizens rarely get to directly affect. Our voters turned down an amendment to the constitution that would have allowed Initiative and Referendum. We do have the ability to recall elected state officers. We still are struggling to find the balance between anarchy and autocracy. The best way we can do that is to vote, but before we vote we should really spend more time talking to those with opinions that differ from ours. That would, I believe, be a healthier approach than paying attention to the stupid, misleading, attack adds that too often sway our perceptions. Remember, if we give up on voting, “They” win.

Self-portrait

By Edward Hirsch

I lived between my heart and my head,

like a married couple who can't get along.

I lived between my left arm, which is swift

and sinister, and my right, which is righteous.

I lived between a laugh and a scowl,

and voted against myself, a two-party system.

My left leg dawdled or danced along,

my right cleaved to the straight and narrow.

My left shoulder was like a stripper on vacation,

my right stood upright as a Roman soldier.

Let's just say that my left side was the organ

donor and leave my private parts alone,

but as for my eyes, which are two shades

of brown, well, Dionysus, meet Apollo.

Look at Eve raising her left eyebrow

while Adam puts his right foot down.

No one expected it to survive,

but divorce seemed out of the question.

I suppose my left hand and my right hand

will be clasped over my chest in the coffin 

and I'll be reconciled at last,

I'll be whole again.

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For Earth Day 2022, let’s mine our own business

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Today, in honor of tomorrow, I urged my Congressman (Republican) and my two US Senators (Democrats), to support reforms to the 1872 Mining law. The kind of reforms I want to see, and that I think we all deserve, include:

• Establish meaningful Tribal consultation and Indigenous resource protections.


• Protecting special places from mining


• Strengthening environmental standards


• Fiscal reforms
• unlike all other extractive industries, hardrock mining pays no royalty for minerals taken from public lands;
• for $5 an acre, mining interests have patented (purchased) an area roughly equivalent in size to the state of Connecticut containing minerals valued at more than $300 billion.

• Enforcement, inspection, and bonding


• Abandoned mine reclamation fund

It’s the only home we’ve got
Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

In Minnesota, proposed hardrock mines threaten water quality in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Mining employment has been declining in the iron mining sector and miners have been clamoring for jobs that support their way of life. I don’t know of any employment sector that offers such protections, do you?

One of the organizations to which I’ve long been a member is Trout Unlimited. They’ve been working for several years on behalf of responsible mining.

At the center of Trout Unlimited’s work on responsible hardrock mining is a commitment avoiding the mistakes of the past. To this end, we approach new mines on a case-by-case basis. We work directly with mining companies, as well as state and federal permitting agencies, to apply policy and practices to mitigate the impacts of new mines on coldwater fisheries. In the case of a wrong mine in the wrong place, Trout Unlimited will strongly advocate in opposition. Location is everything and when the threat of groundwater depletion, acid-mine drainage and potential for spills cannot be responsibly mitigated, Trout Unlimited reserves the right to say no.

They also are advocating for A “Good Samaritan” bill in Congress would make it easier for conservationists and partners to tackle abandoned mines polluting Western waters .

Personally, I believe it would be fantastic if mining reform legislation were combined with Right to Repair, enhanced incentives for recycling electronics waste, and requirements that all metals used in products sold in the US be produced in accord with the standards of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance and be ISEAL certified.

It’s been more than fifty years since the first Earth Day. We’ve made too little progress protecting our only life support systems. That’s why we’re in the trouble we’re in. We can and must do better. Mining is a global industry that should be required to meet stringent global standards for protecting the environment, affected communities and those who do the actual mining.

An Earth Song 

Langston Hughes - 1901-1967

It's an earth song,—
And I've been waiting long for an earth song. 
It's a spring song,—
And I've been waiting long for a spring song. 
    Strong as the shoots of a new plant 
    Strong as the bursting of new buds
    Strong as the coming of the first child from its mother's womb. 
It's an earth song, 
A body song, 
A spring song, 
I have been waiting long for this spring song. 

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A vision for Minnesota to share

The branches of trees are ice-coated, again. The ground is covered in freezing/melting slush. Temperatures have been hovering around 32℉. Has the township plowed our road for the last time this spring? Perhaps. Time, and temperatures, will tell.

March: mixed precipitation

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, yesterday we saw open waters at the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area Sunrise River pools north of County Road 36. There were in attendance quite a few Canada geese, a few swans, and a handful or two of ducks. We noticed a few mallards but that’s the only species we could ID on our quick drive past. A pair of sandhill cranes were stalking across one of the farm fields near the WMA. Other ponds and wetlands we drove past had waterfowl resting on the remaining ice. All in all, a typical early spring day in the North Country.

I’ve been doing some research on the economic impacts of recreational fishing, and fly fishing in particular, over the last few days. According to the American Sportfishing Association 2018 estimates, statewide anglers contributed $4.4 billion in economic output to the state and supported 28,000± jobs. In our own Congressional District 8, the comparable numbers were $518 million and 3,260 jobs. Minnesota, as you probably suspected, is ranked among the top states for recreational fishing participation. For comparison, Minnesota has about 6,500 mining and logging jobs statewide. (I’m not aware of any major pollution sites left by recreational anglers for taxpayers to clean up.)

I’ve not begun to review and assimilate the reports I’ve downloaded in the last day or so. That comes later. I do know that our current economy has most of US like the donkey on the treadmill trying to catch the carrot dangling in front of US. I’ve come to believe we deserve something better. Some years ago, Wendell Berry did a good job of capturing many of the essentials I’m referring to in this poem.

A Vision –

Wendell Berry

If we will have the wisdom to survive,

to stand like slow-growing trees

on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,

if we will make our seasons welcome here,

asking not too much of earth or heaven,

then a long time after we are dead

the lives our lives prepare will live

there, their houses strongly placed

upon the valley sides, fields and gardens

rich in the windows. The river will run

clear, as we will never know it,

and over it, birdsong like a canopy.

On the levels of the hills will be

green meadows, stock bells in noon shade.

On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down

the old forest, an old forest will stand,

its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.

The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.

Families will be singing in the fields.

In their voices they will hear a music

risen out of the ground. They will take

nothing from the ground they will not return,

whatever the grief at parting. Memory,

native to this valley, will spread over it

like a grove, and memory will grow

into legend, legend into song, song

into sacrament. The abundance of this place,

the songs of its people and its birds,

will be health and wisdom and indwelling

light. This is no paradisal dream.

Its hardship is its possibility.

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Why have the legislative fox guard the mining henhouse?

The Biden Administration has cancelled the two mineral leases necessary for the Twin Metals project to proceed. In the near  term, that’s good news. But, and it’s a big BUT in our opinion, there are other potential mining projects that may get developed regardless of the laws in place at the time. How can that be? you may well ask. Here’s one possible answer:

Legislative deal would exempt Cohasset project from some environmental review

A bill negotiated between the Republican-led Senate and the DFL-majority House says the plant won’t have to complete an extensive Environmental Impact Statement normally required for projects of its size. 

Legislatures rarely feel bound to honor decisions made by their predecessors. On political grounds I can understand that. On scientific grounds, I categorically reject it unless the science changes materially. There’s a further problem to which we need to be sensitive if we rely on Minnesota’s “world class mining regulations.” Our regulatory agencies aren’t always world class when it comes to implementing such regulations as we have, those that the legislature hasn’t reclaimed to itself.

According to an article in MinnPost on a recent court ruling regarding a water pollution discharge permit for the PolyMet NorthMet project,

The court also affirmed an earlier district court ruling that the MPCA did not break permitting rules or systematically try to hide evidence of their actions when issuing the NPDES permit, a decision that followed allegations that the agency attempted to suppress EPA concerns.

The court did say, however, that they were not endorsing the actions of state regulators at the MPCA, who pressured the feds to not provide public written criticisms of the PolyMet permit, in part to avoid bad press.

“In other words, the PCA’s efforts to discourage the EPA from providing written comments during the public-comment period had the purpose and effect of avoiding or minimizing 17 public criticism of the proposed permit and, in addition, avoiding the need for the PCA to publicly respond in writing to the EPA’s comments,” the appeals court wrote.

how can we best protect such waters?

Photo by J. Harrington

There may be a better way to protect Minnesota’s clean air, clean water, local communities and governmental integrity. We’re not referring to a “Prove It First” law, such as the one the Wisconsin legislature recently gutted. We suggest instead that Minnesota seriously evaluate becoming involved in the development of and ultimately adopt the standards being developed by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance. As described in the prospective role for government:

Given the robust process behind IRMA’s creation and governance, governments can use IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mining as a template for improving laws and regulations, particularly as it represents the views of diverse stakeholders. In this way, governments can be equally responsive to civil society as they are to business.

IRMA is careful to publicly state that its standard and voluntary assessment are meant to complement, not replace, laws and regulations. We agree with several in the civil society sector who correctly point out that voluntary initiatives should not delay or replace the adoption of improved laws. Indeed, strong regulations are critical in order to protect communities, the labor force, and the environment throughout the world.

In addition to multi-stakeholder involvement, the IRMA standards envision compliance auditing of corporate and mining sites.

Some might argue that the cancellation of Twin Metals leases and the gridlock of PolyMet permits demonstrates that Minnesota can manage without something like IRMA standards. I suspect we’d already be faced with at least one operating copper mine were it not for a multitude of environmental organizations and indigenous water protectors who have had the resources to engage in a multitude of court cases over a number of years. Our state agencies, in and of themselves, are not protecting us, plus, they can be overridden by the legislature. A process that involves many represented stakeholders, with mining compliance subject to audit, seems to offer a closer approximation of a transparent, truly world class permitting process than we now have. Mightn’t we be better off putting our efforts where our world class claims are?

North Country Blues

Written by: Bob Dylan 

Come gather ’round friends
And I’ll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty

In the north end of town
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door
The drag lines an’ the shovels they was a-humming 
’Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him

Well a long winter’s wait
From the window I watched
My friends they couldn’t have been kinder And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner

Oh the years passed again
And the givin’ was good
With the lunch bucket filled every season
What with three babies born
The work was cut down
To a half a day’s shift with no reason

Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen 
’Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin’

They complained in the East
They are paying too high
They say that your ore ain’t worth digging 
That it’s much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking 
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking

I lived by the window
As he talked to himself
This silence of tongues it was building 
Then one morning’s wake
The bed it was bare
And I’s left alone with three children

The summer is gone
The ground’s turning cold
The stores one by one they’re a-foldin’
My children will go
As soon as they grow
Well, there ain’t nothing here now to hold them

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Republicans aren’t the only ones suppressing voter participation

 Six years (3 elections?) ago, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party’s Environmental Caucus agreed to defer action on a contentious, but popular, resolution that opposed copper mining such as that envisioned by the PolyMet and Twin Metals projects. According to a 2016 article in the Star Tribune,

“It’s kicking the can down the road, but I think they’re starting to realize with this election that Democrats fighting among ourselves is not a good thing, and we need to find a better resolution to these issues than taking potshots.”

Twin Metals offices, Ely MN

Photo by J. Harrington

We now have two former Democrat state senators from mining country who have declared themselves Independents and now caucus with the Republicans. Neither mining project is operating yet. PolyMet has four of its required permits embroiled in court cases and reissuance. Twin Metals is facing a potential twenty year prohibition on copper mining in the watershed in which it’s located. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s Congressional District 8 is again represented by a Republican.

Democratic Party precinct caucuses are coming up on February 1, 2022. I’m debating with myself, and discussing with the Better Half, the pros and cons of participating, even remotely, in a process that’s deeply flawed because, in 2016, “The resolution was the most popular among all resolutions passed up through local DFL organizing units to the state convention’s platform committee, indicating grass roots DFL opposition to copper-nickel mining, Kanitz said.” 

I grew up in a neighborhood that lived by the slogan (among others): “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Since it’s not clear who, if any, might be local DFL candidates I’d want to endorse, or if the DFL has learned that ignoring grass roots issues can be counterproductive. it may be awhile before I’ve decided if I’m again a Democrat or intend to remain an Independent.

A Short Note to My Very Critical and Well-Beloved Friends and Comrades

June Jordan - 1936-2002

First they said I was too light
Then they said I was too dark
Then they said I was too different
Then they said I was too much the same
Then they said I was too young
Then they said I was too old
Then they said I was too interracial
Then they said I was too much a nationalist
Then they said I was too silly
Then they said I was too angry
Then they said I was too idealistic
Then they said I was too confusing altogether:
Make up your mind! They said. Are you militant
or sweet? Are you vegetarian or meat? Are you straight
or are you gay?

And I said, Hey! It’s not about my mind

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A good news day this month

Today’s posting will be short and sweet. There’s some good news to report for a change.

• Paul Hawken’s Regeneration has been released and I’ve already got my copy.


• The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, at the direction of the Minnesota Supreme Court, has initiated a contested case hearing on PolyMet’s Permit to Mine. We’ll follow up on this next week we hope.


• Trout Week begins tomorrow


• Orion magazine has an article on Rewilding the Elwha River: Ten Years Later


• While pulling into the drive today, I noticed a small flock of turkeys standing in the  middle of the road.


• The kernza pancake and waffle mix arrived in the mail. We’ll try it next week.

autumn’s beauty is still developing

Photo by J. Harrington

On a much more personal and pragmatic level, the self-tapping screw that somehow became embedded in the Jeep’s left rear tire has been removed and the hole repaired. All seems well.

Autumn

Elizabeth Drew Stoddard

No melancholy days are these!
     Not where the maple changing stands,
Not in the shade of fluttering oaks,
            Nor in the bands

Of twisting vines and sturdy shrubs,
     Scarlet and yellow, green and brown,
Falling, or swinging on their stalks,
            Is Sorrow’s crown.

The sparkling fields of dewy grass,
     Woodpaths and roadsides decked with flowers,
Starred asters and the goldenrod,
            Date Autumn’s hours.

The shining banks of snowy clouds,
     Steadfast in the aerial blue,
The silent, shimmering, silver sea,
            To Joy are true.

My spirit in this happy air
     Can thus embrace the dying year,
And with it wrap me in a shroud
            As bright and clear!

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Could agriculture become the new mining?

In meteorological terms, we're close to midsummer, July 17. Astronomically, it won't occur until August 6. Whichever system you prefer, we're near peak summer. We picked up our first community supported agriculture summer share this past Thursday. It included:

• garlic scapes
• broccoli
• cabbage
• cucumbers
• salad turnips
• purple kohlrabi, and
• golden beets

Our local big box grocery store has sweet corn on sale and watermelon [probably not local] for sale. If both were local, we'd be at high summer.

dawn of a new era for agriculture?

Photo by J. Harrington

Lots of the area's field corn and soy bean fields are looking healthier than I expected to see after our unseasonable extended hot spell. Apparently we've been getting just enough rain to keep the commodity crops happy. No sign of tassels on the corn yet. Our local fields of commodity crops may be  consumed locally or be sold internationally. Donella Meadows has several interesting observations about making mid-sized farms sustainable. Among those observations is:

Some of the most interesting experiments weaving together these policies are in the specialty cheese and wine regions of Europe, where certified regional identity and stewardship incentives are combined with supply management collective agreements. When I have taken US farmers and extension specialists to French cheese-making regions, they have been universally impressed by farm prosperity, traditional landscapes, and community vitality.

Being  impressed by "farm prosperity, traditional landscapes, and community vitality" may or may not be enough to overcome entrenched attitudes fortified by the "not invented here" syndrome. And yet, we keep seeing farms get bigger and rural populations get smaller. The more that happens, the more farming resembles another extractive industry, mining. There's been increased participation during the  past few years in an organization known as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance. Maybe we would all benefit if there was a comparable organization and standards adopted for farming, standards that  looked beyond maximizing yield and at social and environmental impacts of extractive production.

The Farmer

By W.D. Ehrhart

Each day I go into the fields 

to see what is growing

and what remains to be done.

It is always the same thing: nothing

is growing, everything needs to be done.

Plow, harrow, disc, water, pray

till my bones ache and hands rub

blood-raw with honest labor—

all that grows is the slow

intransigent intensity of need.

I have sown my seed on soil

guaranteed by poverty to fail.

But I don’t complain—except

to passersby who ask me why

I work such barren earth.

They would not understand me

if I stooped to lift a rock

and hold it like a child, or laughed,

or told them it is their poverty

I labor to relieve. For them,

I complain. A farmer of dreams

knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams

knows what it means to be patient.

Each day I go into the fields.

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Minnesota H2O: who's in charge?

It's been quite awhile since we've had any rain around here. From what I can read, it's much worse west and south of here. Meanwhile, many states, including Minnesota, continue to let agriculture pollute the crap (sorry, couldn't resist) into their surface and groundwaters. In Minnesota, and a number of other  states, we compound the problem by failing to adopt and apply rigorous discharge and design standards for mining activities. The last time I took a look, the Great Lakes Compact states were interpreting and applying policy kind of loosely deciding who's eligible to tap into that fresh  water resource.

who's responsible for protecting Minnesota waters

Photo by J. Harrington

Once upon a time, both Will Rogers and Mark Twain shared a sentiment about the value of buying land. Fresh water in potable, swimmable, or fishable condition is an even rarer resource. So, back in 2011, the Water Resources Center responded to a 2009 directive from the Minnesota Legislature by developing and publishing The MINNESOTA WATER SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK.

The Framework identifies ten major issues that present the challenges, and solutions to those challenges, that must be addressed if water sustainability is to be achieved in Minnesota. These issues (labeled A – J) fall within the three areas that define sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. 

One of those major issues proposes a desired future described as "Governments, institutions, and communities working together to implement an overarching water sustainability policy that is aligned with all other systems policies (land use, energy, economic development, transportation, food and fiber production) through laws, ordinances, and actions that promote resilience and sustainability." The problem is that:

Minnesota’s waters are governed by hundreds of laws, regulations, rules, and ordinances involving more than 20 federal agencies, seven state agencies, and hundreds of local units of government. 

I doubt very seriously that we're much, if any, closer to the desired future proposed than at the time the Framework was drafted. In fact, what we're seeing more and more of is the Minnesota Legislature attempting to act as both the legislative and the executive branch of government. Check it's actions in regard to mining and environmental regulations; the governor's emergency powers; mutual aid support among local units of government; and, no doubt, other issues legislators find critical to their reelection (Clean Cars, anyone?).

Meanwhile, if anyone can point me toward specific legislative action taken in support of implementing the Water Sustainability Framework that body directed be prepared, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Do you remember the old advice about the time to lock the barn door? Perhaps we should require candidates for elective office to sign a pledge at least acknowledging their familiarity with that advice before they can be considered a legitimate candidate for any office.

Water

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The water understands 

Civilization well; 

It wets my foot, but prettily, 

It chills my life, but wittily, 

It is not disconcerted, 

It is not broken-hearted: 

Well used, it decketh joy, 

Adorneth, doubleth joy: 

Ill used, it will destroy, 

In perfect time and measure 

With a face of golden pleasure 

Elegantly destroy.

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