ELY, MN-- Today, nine Minnesota businesses and Ely-based Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness filed an appeal of a March 17 district court decision upholding the Trump Administration’s arbitrary reversal of 2016 Twin Metals’ lease cancellation. The reversal is being challenged through a lawsuit brought by Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness and 9 Northeastern Minnesota businesses against the Trump Administration. The lawsuit challenges the legality of a May 2018 temporary reinstatement of expired mineral leases. Those leases have since been officially renewed.
The leases were terminated in 2016 when, after years of study and overwhelming public comment, the U.S. Forest Service concluded that copper mining under these leases posed an unacceptable risk of irreparable damage to the Boundary Waters and surrounding Superior National Forest lands and waters.
“We are appealing the district court’s ruling because the fate of America’s most popular Wilderness is at stake,” said Tom Landwehr, Executive Director for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters and Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness. “The US Forest Service not only had the right, but the obligation to cancel Twin Metals’ risky leases. The reversal of this decision by the Trump Administration goes against science, public opinion, and established environmental policy.”
Minnesotans overwhelmingly oppose mining near the Boundary Waters. A recent Star Tribune/MPR poll showed that by a 3-1 margin Minnesotans opposed sulfide-ore copper mining near the Boundary Waters. Less than a quarter of Minnesotans supported new mining near the Wilderness. Significantly, responses did not vary greatly between regions of the state, with 54% of Northern Minnesota residents opposed and only 26% in favor.
The Trump Administration has continued to hide critical scientific data on the danger of sulfide-ore copper mining, refusing calls by Congress, the media, and the public to release the data. Just this week they refused a request from the state of Minnesota to hand over this crucial research.