US EPA to probe permits issued to PolyMet’s copper-nickel project in Minnesota

The US
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog is launching a probe
into the permitting process for PolyMet Mining’s planned $1 billion copper-nickel
mine in Minnesota, amid doubts the project really complies with Clean Water Act
requirements.

According to documents
released late Thursday
, EPA staff scientists voiced their concerns
about key permits for the NorthMet project issued by the Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency (MPCA) in late 2018.

The agency,
however, granted the PolyMet water pollution and air permits for its project,
set to become the state’s first copper-nickel mine, after reviewing EPA’s
comments and concerns, advocacy group and opponent to the mine, WaterLegacy, said
in a statement
.

EPA’s objections
were made public following a lawsuit filed in February by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility on behalf of WaterLegacy, which
sought to uncover the documents showing the agency warned the MPCA the draft
licences lacked water-quality-based effluent limitations.

PCA spokesperson
Darin Broton said the final permits include clear caps on pollutants present in
water discharge.

“Similar to other
complex projects, the MPCA and EPA had frequent conversations during the entire
permitting process to discuss technical items,” Broton said in a
statement. “Based on those conversations, as well as other comments
received from the public during the official comment period, the MPCA made
substantive changes to the draft permit, including additional operating limits
for arsenic, cobalt, lead, nickel, and mercury; and new language was added that
clearly states that the discharge must not violate water quality standards.
That’s why EPA did not object to the MPCA’s final permit.”

NorthMet is not
the only project having a hard time to move forward in Minnesota. Chilean miner
Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), through its subsidiary Twin Metals, is facing concerns
from locals about the risks
its proposed underground copper-nickel mine and
processing facility along the shores of Birch Lake and the South Kawishiwi
River, which lie in the Rainy River watershed, would carry.

Last month, more
than two dozen former US Forest Service staffers sent
a letter to the government
, outlining their worries.

“Irrefutable
scientific studies and all of our experience tell us that in this extremely
valuable, water-rich and highly interconnected place you simply cannot have
both copper mining and healthy forests, water and communities,” the letter,
addressed to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who oversees the Forest
Service, and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, reads.

“Speculation about
the impact of a potential mine at this time, before a proposal has even been
submitted, is just that — speculation,” the company said in a statement sent to MPRNews.

Meanwhile, a
coalition of businesses, environmental advocates and outdoor recreation groups
of Minnesota, are challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of an
Obama-era decision
 blocking all new mining projects within the
watershed where Antofagasta’s mine would be for 20 years.