US EditionAt Iron Range hearing, miners warn of closures if wild rice rule enforced
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency proposes a 10 parts per million sulfate limit to protect wild rice, despite warnings of potential mine closures and $800 million treatment costs.
- Hundreds gathered at a Sept. 3, 2025, public hearing at Iron Trail Motors Event Center to address Minnesota Pollution Control Agency draft permits limiting sulfate discharges from U.S. Steel's Keetac mine in Keewatin.
- This hearing followed a 2016 state law invalidating sulfate limits in permits and attempts to update the 1973 wild rice sulfate standard, which has never been enforced on Minnesota mines.
- Speakers included union officials warning that enforcing the 10 mg/L sulfate standard would force mine closures and layoffs, while environmental and tribal advocates emphasized the standard's importance for protecting treaty-protected wild rice and water health.
- U.S. Steel estimated installing $800 million in water treatment facilities would increase ore costs by $17.50 per ton, threatening competitiveness, whereas the PCA found no substantial economic impact and denied the company's variance request.
- The event underscored tensions between environmental protection and regional economic concerns, with the draft permits open for public comment until Sept. 22, 2025, signaling ongoing regulatory and community challenges.
15 Articles
15 Articles
US Steel permit requests reignite debate over wild rice sulfate limits
This story originally appeared on KAXE. VIRGINIA — The state’s decades-old wild rice sulfate standard is as central to miners’ fears as it is to environmental advocates’ hope. Steelworkers, contractors and others who rely on mining for their livelihoods worry that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s efforts to finally enforce the sulfate limit will devastate the Iron Range. Environmental and Indigenous advocates say enforcement is long over…
Duluth News Tribune
At Iron Range hearing, miners warn of closures if wild rice rule enforced
VIRGINIA — Staff removed the ballroom’s divider and brought in more chairs, but there were still not enough seats for the dozens of attendees who stood throughout the two-and-a-half-hour meeting. Hundreds of miners, Iron Range residents and environmentalists gathered at the Iron Trail Motors Event Center on Wednesday evening to address the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency directly on a pair of draft water permits that, if finalized, would limi…
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