Star Tribune
PolyMet mine faces new obstacle after judge recommends rejecting its permit
An administrative court has recommended denying a key permit for PolyMet Mining’s open-pit copper-nickel project, asserting that its design would risk contaminating too much water.
Administrative Law Judge James E. LaFave wrote in a ruling released on Tuesday that the company’s plan to apply bentonite clay to an old taconite tailings basin, and then put waste rock from its hardrock mine on top, would not satisfy the state’s rules because it was not a “practical and workable” solution.
As a result, PolyMet’s permit to mine should be denied by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, LaFave wrote.
“That’s an amazing result, and a huge victory,” said Paula Maccabee, an attorney with the nonprofit group WaterLegacy, one of several organizations that challenged the tailings basin design.
The ruling is not a final decision — it will be sent to back to DNR, which can accept or reject it. LaFave also wrote that if DNR decides differently and proceeds with the permit, the agency should attach special conditions to manage water seeping through mine tailings.
“We’re reviewing the [administrative law judge’s] recommendation and evaluating our options at this time,” Bruce Richardson, a spokesman for PolyMet and NewRange Copper Nickel, wrote in an email.
PolyMet wants to build a massive, open-pit hardrock mine near Babbitt, Minn., and use the former LTV Steel site in Hoyt Lakes to process the material. Hardrock mining has been controversial in Minnesota because of an increased risk of acid mine drainage, compared to the iron mining that’s traditionally dominated the state.
Since originally proposing its mine, PolyMet, which is owned by the international conglomerate Glencore, formed the NewRange partnership with a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Teck Resources. Teck was developing its own mining project next door.
PolyMet’s proposal has been stalled by other permitting issues — most recently, the Minnesota Supreme Court revoked a key water pollution permit in August.
In a statement, DNR Deputy Commissioner Barb Naramore wrote that an unnamed senior leader at the agency will review the recommendations and solicit comments from the parties in the case before making the final decision on the permit.
“They and their legal counsel also have not had, and will not have, any contact with the DNR permitting team regarding the specifics of the case,” Naramore wrote.
The ruling comes after a five-day hearing this spring, in which a coalition of environmental groups, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the DNR and representatives for PolyMet all presented their sides in the case.
The issues covered were narrow: could the use of bentonite clay on the former LTV Steel tailings basin stop water from filtering through waste rock? If not, acid mine drainage could escape into the Lake Superior watershed.
Bentonite clay is used in many applications, including at other mine sites in Minnesota. It’s also an ingredient in some cosmetics. In this case, the clay was supposed to reduce water and oxygen infiltration on the sides and bottom of an already water-filled tailings pond.
Despite recommending denial, LaFave’s ruling asserted that bentonite could be used effectively to coat the sides and bottom of the pond, and that it would reduce water and oxygen infiltration.
“I don’t quite know what to make of that [part of the ruling]” said Chris Knopf, executive director of the group Friends of the Boundary Waters.
But Knopf pointed to another section which detailed an undisputed fact: that 298 million gallons of water would still seep from the tailings each year.
DNR and PolyMet argued this was just a tiny proportion of all the water in the watershed, and a fraction of a percent of the water contained by the tailings pond. LaFave decided, however, that the design did not stop “substantially all water” from contacting the tailings and flowing away, as required by state rules.
“If a hauler wanted to transport 298 million gallons of water by truck…it would take 27,091 trucks to carry the water. If those trucks were lined up bumper-to-bumper, the convoy would stretch 271 miles – approximately the distance between St. Paul and Grand Marais,” he wrote.
In a statement, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Chairman Kevin R. Dupuis Sr. wrote that the decision served to safeguard the natural resources that Native people rely on, and that treaty rights protect. Fond du Lac’s reservation is downstream of PolyMet’s planned mine.
“Today’s decision by the ALJ would protect these resources for the Band and all Minnesotans,” Dupuis wrote. “DNR must accept the ALJ’s decision.”
Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go trick-or-treating in the suburbs, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.
Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.
Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Q Bear DJed the party.
KB Brown and his grandson Zakari, 3. Brown founded Project Refocus, a nonprofit dealing with youth mentorship, security along the West Broadway business corridor and opioid response in the surrounding neighborhoods. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently purchased land in Bemidji to redevelop into a retreat center for gun violence survivors.
He in turn invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games such as “NBA Jam” and “Big Buck Hunter.” The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiancé Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four kids and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 shut everything down. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.
Pull and Pay owner Dominique Howard showed kids, squeezed elbow to elbow, how to play “Big Buck Hunter” inside his homebuilt mobile arcade. (Susan Du/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member attending with her two-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.
“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting his grandson Zakari (a 3-year-old Chucky with candy-smeared cheeks) on one arm. “Everybody here is from the community.”
NOVI, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with a woman’s first name in recent days as the Republican presidential nominee focuses his closing message on a hypermasculine appeal to men.
On a Friday morning post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president referred to one of the most prominent openly gay journalists in the U.S. as “Allison Cooper.”
Trump made the subtext even more explicit later Friday during a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.
”If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before pausing and saying in a mocking voice: ”Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
On Saturday, Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally. ”They had a town hall,” Trump said. ”Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
In referring to Cooper with a woman’s name, Trump appeared to turn to a stereotype heterosexual people have long deployed against gay men. Such rhetoric evokes the trope of gay men as effeminate and comes as Trump aims to drive up his appeal among men in the final stages of his bid to return to the White House.
The former president on Friday recorded a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, a former mixed martial arts commentator whose podcast is wildly popular among young men. On Oct 19, Trump kicked off a Pennsylvania rally discussing legendary golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Cooper declined to comment.
According to Gomez, workers have had wages withheld under threats of possible deportations. Unauthorized workers are less likely to seek legal aid due to their legal status.
“What I want from this program is for other people not to suffer the same abuses that we’ve suffered in the past,” Gomez said. “This program is designed to prevent these abuses.”
CTUL said workers’ rights under the program will be shared in multiple languages.
Gomez specifically named Yellow Tree, United Properties, and Solhem Cos. as developers he’d like to see join the program. CTUL called for these companies, as well as Roers, Doran Properties Group, and MWF Properties, to adopt the standards.
Those working under developers in the program can report abuse to the standards council. After a complaint is made, the council will monitor contractors’ worksites to make sure they are complying with the standards.
If the council finds that a contractor is abusing workers, developers in CTUL’s program would be legally required to stop working with the contractor.
