Range challenges Dayton

[Lee Borgersen]

  Ely, Iron Range officials challenge Dayton on Twin Metals opposition

Apr 1, 2016 at 10:17 p.m.


 
EVELETH — Upon reading about Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton's opposition to the proposed Twin Metals copper mine last month, Ely Mayor Chuck Novak said he felt shock, disbelief and anger.



"Your decision was a disappointment," Novak told Dayton on Friday.

  ...
Novak said he wished Dayton had met with Ely officials before writing a letter last month declining Twin Metals' request to access state land for advance work for its proposed underground copper mine along the Kawishiwi River, about 10 miles southeast of Ely. In the letter, Dayton wrote that he has "grave concerns" that the proposed underground operation poses a risk to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

  ..
Instead, a face-to-face meeting occurred Friday at the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board's offices. For three hours, Dayton listened to officials from the Ely City Council and the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools say why he should support the Twin Metals mine.

Listing Ely's economic needs and its dedication to the environment, Novak said, "You're the sitting governor, you can make the decision, but we have the right to say 'please review this and change your mind.' "

 
 
It was standing-room-only and the crowd — some wearing hard hats, union jackets and stickers stating "We support mining" — overflowed into a second room to watch the meeting unfold via closed-circuit TV. However, some of the audience agreed with Dayton's decision by holding signs stating "We support Gov. Dayton #BWCA."

Dayton laid out his argument to kick off the meeting, saying that he recognizes the importance of mining, but he doesn't believe an underground copper mine can be built in the same watershed as the BWCAW without affecting the protected area — and that Twin Metals' parent company Antofagasta PLC is "dangling" the incentive of new jobs to get northern Minnesotans to "turn over the Boundary Waters to a company in Chile."

"To me, it's so fanciful, it boggles my mind. ... To think that you could do that, build something underground right adjacent to the Boundary Waters, and have nobody notice. ... The noise and the contamination and the dust and everything else and all the senior citizens and other residents in the Ely area will have their town overrun by the number of people involved in this project and won't be able to get onto (Highway) 169 to get to Ely and will have to go over to (Highway) 1, it just staggers my mind that anybody could come up and say straight-faced to the people of Ely... and get everyone on board for something that when you look at it, to me, is just fanciful and farcical," Dayton said. "I personally object to some company coming in from Chile and putting this in the face of all of us who want jobs. I understand, the mining industry is in bad shape."

Over and over, elected officials cautioned Dayton that turning down Twin Metals will cost the area hundreds of potential jobs and damage an already-hurting economy. They repeatedly asked Dayton to reconsider his position and allow the environmental review process on the proposal to proceed, handing him 17 resolutions expressing that request from the RAMS school districts, townships and municipalities.

"We are going to lose more families, residents and businesses as we struggle through this latest downturn," RAMS Executive Director Steve Giorgi said. "We have the largest precious mineral deposit in the Duluth Complex known to man. If mining those minerals cannot be done safely and meeting the most advanced regulatory standards in the world, the project will not advance. If the Range cannot access that resource and that wealth of capital, what, Gov. Dayton, can you do to help us make our area in the state a vibrant place to live?"

The risks of the proposed mine aren't yet known because the project hasn't reached that point of review, said Paul Kess, an Ely city councilor and president of RAMS. Saying Dayton's letter "infuriated" him, Ely City Councilor Al Forsman said the governor is undermining the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource's job by opposing the project at this point. Twin Metals would address potential problems such as noise and dust in its mine plan operation, but Dayton is stopping that plan from being developed with his opposition, Forsman said.

The proposed mine, Dayton countered, would be like "putting a wing of Mall of America underground next to the BWCA." To allow Twin Metals to continue to go step by step through the process would be a disservice to residents and the company who would anticipate the mine opening in the area, he said.

However, Dayton said the federal Bureau of Land Management still is working on its determination regarding Twin Metals' federal lease holdings — and his opposition may end up being an opinion of a governor no longer in office by the time the federal agency is finished.

"I don't have the power to kill this project," Dayton concluded.