ELY, MN- After recent news that the Trump Administration refused the state of Minnesota’s request for the suppressed Federal research from a cancelled study into the impact of sulfide ore mining near the Boundary Waters, the Mankato Free Press called for the state to insist on the study. The study, which was cancelled at the very last moment, has become a symbol of the Trump Administration’s reckless rush to ram through risky sulfide ore mining next to the Boundary Waters.
The Administration has refused calls from the public, the press, and Congress to hand over the data, as it likely shows what a vast majority of Minnesotans already know, that allowing the nation’s most toxic industry right next to America’s most popular Wilderness is a terrible idea.
The Free Press writes:
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources needs to use all means to force the federal government to release research on the impacts of copper-nickel mining on the Superior National Forest and its Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The U.S. Forest Service recently denied Minnesota’s request for research the federal agency did on the proposed $1 billion Twin Metals copper-nickel mine just outside the Boundary Waters. The agency said that because the study was never finished and the data collected has not been fully validated.
It’s the flimsiest of arguments that Minnesota needs to challenge in the courts. The only reason the study was canceled before being finished is because the Trump administration killed the research in order to see the Twin Metals mine move ahead without the inconvenient light of scientific research blocking it.
The Trump administration has every right to be friendly to mining. But it also has a duty to fairly study and evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed mines so states have the information they need to make decisions on permits.
You can read the full piece here.