Star Tribune
Minnesota rule rewrite will expand mining noise and light protections around Boundary Waters
Minnesota will expand a surface mining buffer zone around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after determining its existing rules didn’t do enough to prevent light and noise pollution, according to a decision released Wednesday.
The announcement from the Department of Natural Resources comes after the agency was ordered by a court to re-examine regulations for nonferrous mines, or those that extract minerals other than iron, like copper and nickel.
The agency said in a 74-page decision filed in Ramsey County Court on Wednesday that it will begin rewriting its rules to expand the size of a protective minerals management corridor next to the Boundary Waters. Mining of any kind is banned in the Boundary Waters, and mining that disturbs the surface is banned in the corridor.
“It is encouraging that they [DNR] recognize the inadequacy of the rules,” said Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW), which challenged the agency’s rules.
A DNR news release also noted that the agency will ask state lawmakers to address other concerns about mine waste storage and leaching raised by the public through comments collected about its rule in 2021. The agency reviewed 4,000 messages and letters.
“We received many comments that raised questions about the State’s policy and risk tolerance around nonferrous mining,” DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen wrote in a statement. “We believe these broader policy questions are more appropriately addressed by Minnesota’s Legislature.”
DNR’s decision stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by NMW. The suit argued that the DNR hadn’t done enough to protect the Boundary Waters from pollution and degradation because the state’s rules didn’t cover all of the Rainy River headwaters watershed, which flows south to north, through the 1.1 million acre preserve.
Twin Metals, a company attempting to open a copper mine near Ely, Minn., intervened in the suit. Company spokeswoman Kathy Graul wrote in a statement that it was reviewing the DNR’s decision, and that the state already had “some of the most rigorous standards in the world.”
Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, faces major hurdles. In January, the Biden Administration imposed a 20-year ban on mineral leases on 225,000 acres of national forest land in northern Minnesota, including the company’s mine site.
Last year, the administration also canceled Twin Metal’s mineral leases. The company sued in federal court, where the case is still pending.
Graul wrote on Wednesday that “we remain committed to advancing a modern mining project that is protective of the environment and that meets or exceeds all state and federal standards.”
While the DNR is taking action based on light and noise concerns, the agency will not consider air and water issues as it re-examines its rule. In its decision, it pointed to existing Minnesota Pollution Control Agency regulations that already protect air and water quality.
“We like the destination. We’ve got some questions about how they got there,” Lyons said.
Hardrock mining of copper and nickel — which would be new to Minnesota — risks compounds in the rock interacting with air and water to create acid drainage.
NMW and Twin Metals both have 30 days to challenge the decision by asking for a contested case hearing, where parties can bring experts before a judge to analyze the details of the DNR’s decision.
Lyons said NMW is still deciding whether to pursue a hearing on the air and water issues the agency did not address.
Twin Metals did not comment on whether it would challenge the DNR’s decision.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for nearly all of Minnesota and Iowa on Thursday, saying fires could spread quickly amid gusty winds and extremely dry air.
Burning brush piles or yard waste is banned while the warning is in place. It is expected to end at 7 p.m. and covers every part of Minnesota, except Lake and Cook counties along the North Shore.
It’s one of the more widespread fire warnings the weather service has issued in the Upper Midwest since it started giving red flag warnings more than a decade ago. That’s a testament to not only how unusually dry the current air mass is hovering over the state, but how arid the entire region has been for the last 45 days, said Kenneth Blumenfeld, the senior climatologist for the Minnesota Climatology Office.
There hasn’t been any measurable rainfall in the Twin Cities so far in October. And September was the driest ever recorded, with records going back to the late 1800s, Blumenfeld said.
“Then you add the immediate conditions of increasing temperatures decreasing the amount of moisture in the air and really gusty winds, all of those things are good at promoting the spread of fire if it starts,” he said.
Forecasts show temperatures in parts of the state climbing in the low 80s this weekend, with no signs of rain in the foreseeable future.
The dry spell has dragged most of the state back into drought for the first time in months, with nearly a third of Minnesota in severe drought, according to a Thursday update from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
It was only a short while ago that heavy spring rains caused damaging floods that threatened dams, overfilled manure lagoons and swamped sewage treatment systems throughout southern Minnesota.
A 20-year-old St. Paul man is now facing three murder charges in separate killings in Minneapolis in recent years.
Albert Jerome Lucas was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court in connection with the killing of 20-year-old Antonio Vernon Harper, of Minneapolis, on Nov. 6, 2023, in Minneapolis in the 3300 block of Dupont Avenue N.
Lucas, who has been jailed since May and remains held in lieu of $2 million bail, is scheduled to appear in court early Thursday afternoon. He does not yet have an attorney listed in court records for this latest charge.
According to Wednesday’s criminal complaint, which charges Lucas with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder:
Officers arrived to the scene and saw Harper on the ground suffering from a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
A witness told police that she saw three males “hugging” the side of home and looking toward Harper and two of his friends. Gunfire from Lucas erupted, hitting Harper, and the suspects fled in a car. One of Harper’s friends shared with officers that the shooting was gang-related.
Officers saw the vehicle two days later and determined it had been stolen in St. Paul. The driver fled police, but officers soon found the vehicle. DNA on a cigar wrapper inside the vehicle was tested and came back as a match for Lucas.
Star Tribune
Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza killed 15
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike on a school sheltering the displaced in northern Gaza on Thursday killed at least 15 people, including five children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had gathered at the Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya, an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza where Israel has been waging a major air and ground operation for more than a week.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the ministry’s emergency unit in northern Gaza, confirmed the toll and said dozens of people were wounded. He said the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital was struggling to treat the casualties.
“Many women and children are in critical condition,” he said.
The Israeli military said it targeted a command center run by both militant groups inside the school. It provided a list of around a dozen names of people it identified as militants who were present when the strike was called in. It was not immediately possible to verify the names.
Israel has repeatedly struck tent camps and schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military says it carries out precise strikes on militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its strikes often kill women and children.
Hamas-led militants triggered the war when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Some 100 captives are still inside Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says women and children make up a little more than half of the fatalities.
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