UPDATE: 9/30/2020: At the Duluth News Tribune, Jimmy Lovrien reports MPCA to EPA: It's time to set mercury limits on the taconite industry. [end update]
A couple of press releases came our way related to an important water quality issue. From the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency via a reader:
MPCA asks EPA to establish specific mercury standard to protect Minnesota waters
EPA had 30 years to develop mercury standards for taconite processing
Late yesterday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), along with the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy, challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its continued failures to establish court-ordered mercury standards. The two states filed a petition for review with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and asked the EPA to reconsider its decision.
Statement by MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop
“The MPCA has been working with Minnesota’s taconite industry to make significant reductions in mercury emissions, but the EPA has reneged on its responsibilities to develop standards for taconite processing. Mercury pollution poses a significant threat to our waters, human health, and economy. The EPA has had 30 years to address mercury emissions from taconite, and its inaction leaves us no other choice than to ask the court to intervene.”
In 1990, the U.S. Congress required the EPA to set mercury emission standards by 2000 and the federal agency failed to meet that deadline. When the EPA issued its required hazardous air pollutant rule for taconite processing facilities in 2003, it failed to set a mercury limit. In 2005, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals required the EPA to propose and finalize mercury emissions limits. In its July 2020 final National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Taconite Iron Ore Processing Residual Risk and Technology Review, the EPA claimed it did not have sufficient time to determine what technologies could be used to control mercury emissions and failed, once again, to set a standard.
Commissioner Bishop continued to say that Minnesota’s taconite mining industry is a vital part of our state’s economic engine and essential for U.S. manufacturing and international trade. “The MPCA remains committed to working with our mining industry to ensure we’re able to protect our waters and foster stronger economic growth. We should not have to choose one over the other.”
Mercury continues to pose a serious threat to Minnesota’s waters and human health. More than 1,200 Minnesota lakes and rivers are impacted by mercury pollution, meaning more than 10% of a fish species in a water body have unhealthy levels of mercury making the fish unsafe for regular consumption. According to a Minnesota Department of Health study, 10% of tested Minnesota newborns in the Lake Superior Basin region had elevated mercury concentrations at birth which can harm brain development and the nervous system.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sent out a statement of its own:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and State Attorney General Keith Ellison joined the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy in a federal lawsuit this week against the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to force the EPA to set a national air emissions standard for mercury in the taconite industry.
A 2011 study by the Minnesota Department of Health showed that 1 in 10 newborns on Minnesota’s North Shore had an unacceptably high level of mercury in their blood, and that there is a connection between mercury and impaired fetal development.
Kathryn Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, issued this statement:
We fully support the Attorney General and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s decision to bring this federal lawsuit. We know that mercury is a pollutant that can be controlled, and that there is a huge upside for public health in doing so. A national air emission standard for mercury in the taconite industry would formalize needed limits, and protect the health of children, especially those in northern Minnesota.
Taconite mining is the last major industry without a national mercury standard. The State of Minnesota currently has a goal of a 72% reduction of mercury emissions from taconite operations. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is the only company that has currently committed to the 72% reduction.
The group describes itself in its about section, "MCEA is the leading legal voice protecting Minnesota’s environment, with deep organizational expertise."
Photo: The moon rises at sunset at Split Rock Lighthouse, on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota.(Image: © Igor Kovalenko | Shutterstock).
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