Star Tribune
Company seeks to expand massive lake of mine waste near North Shore
A mining company wants to expand its already massive tailings lake near Silver Bay to accommodate six times more taconite waste than currently sits there — but one environmental group is suing to force a new study of the potential for a major spill or other harm.
Located about 3 miles from Lake Superior, Northshore Mining’s artificial basin known as Mile Post 7 stores waste from more than four decades of extraction. Three dams contain a 2,150-acre basin built in the late 1970s to end the practice of dumping mining waste into Lake Superior, one of Minnesota’s most infamous cases of industrial pollution. Many in the small communities around it don’t know the lake is there, because it’s mostly hidden from surrounding roads. But the basin, covering an area five times bigger than Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis, is visible on satellite images, a huge white splotch along the North Shore.
The owner of Northshore, Cleveland-Cliffs, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Department of Natural Resources last completed an environmental impact statement for the site in 1976. Still, the DNR has repeatedly monitored and tested the site so a new one isn’t necessary, said Jess Richards, a DNR assistant commissioner.
“This is one of the most studied and litigated mine sites in the whole state,” Richards said in an interview. “We have four decades worth of data and information.”
The agency has noted in court filings that a failure of the dams that hold back the tailings would be “catastrophic.” More details about what would happen in a failure are hard to come by, because the safety plans available to the public are heavily redacted.
Richards said the three dams that hold the waste are safe.
“Should the public just trust the DNR?” he said. “I would say yes.”
Gunfire killed two people and injured three in downtown Minneapolis early Saturday, according to police.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said officers responding to multiple fights near N. 5th Street and Hennepin Avenue heard gunshots from the area just before 2 a.m. Saturday. Officers rushed to the scene and found five victims. All were given medical aid before being transported to area hospitals.
Two men died, O’Hara said. Two juvenile females and an adult woman suffered noncritical injuries.
A man was arrested and booked on probable cause in the incident, but authorities are still investigating his role. Police said they recovered a firearm and “other evidence” from the scene.
The violence comes a week after an SUV drove into a crowd after a fight at the same intersection. Latalia Anjolie Margalli is charged with one count of second-degree murder and five counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the crash that killed De’Miaya Broome and injured several others shortly after 12:20 a.m. Sept. 14.
There have been five homicides in Minneapolis since last weekend. That brings the annual total to 57, 22% more than at this time in 2023, when the tally stood at 47, according to a Star Tribune database.
This is a developing story.
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this story.
Star Tribune
More small Minnesota towns are embracing Pride events. But holding them can be complicated.
That’s part of the reason why McClellan has waited for years to put on a Pride celebration. He tried to about five years ago through a local theater group, but there was concern about the impact on the theater program.
Holly Reeve, owner of Refill Goods, Annie Jurgens, co-organizer of the festival, and Michael Hutchinson, a candidate for the Minnesota House, have a conversation during the Plainview Pride Festival at Refill Goods. (Ayrton Breckenridge)
There have been other issues, too. McClellan and Jurgens both remember the confederate flag that used to hang near their businesses (Jurgens owns a store downtown), and the tizzy during the last school board election when one of the candidates had trans kids. More conservative candidates got elected.
A 33-year-old proud and bubbly gay man, McClellan grew up in Plainview and married his childhood friend only two years ago. Everybody knows and loves him, people say, but he’s always felt people haven’t truly accepted him or other LGBTQ+ residents in town.
“I told my husband when I married him, ‘We either leave Plainview, or we make this town the kind of place we want to live in,’” McClellan said.
McClellan and Jurgens have been planning a Pride celebration for almost two years. They thought about a parade or an event in a park. But they worried about violence.
“There’s so much vitriol being spewed about the trans community,” Jurgens said. “These rights are under attack.”
Lesson 7: Compounding is incredibly powerful; start saving as early as possible.
If you start investing $1,000 a month at age 40 and earn 8% a year, you will have about $957,000 by age 65 (after investing $300,000 during that time). If you instead invest $272 a month starting at age 25 and earn that same 8%, you will have about $957,000 by age 65 (after investing $130,080 over that time).
Lesson 8: Pay off high-interest rate debt first.
If you have three loans, one at 6%, one at 9% and one at 15%, prioritize paying down the 15% loan.
Some financial experts recommend prioritizing the lowest balance loan first, regardless of its interest rate, because of the emotional benefit you get from checking that financial box.
However, the theme of these lessons is to separate emotions from money. Trust the simple math you learned in elementary school.
