In spite of many objections, PolyMet continues to move toward obtaining a permit to mine from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. This copper-sulfide company claims it will treat and build containment for all the toxins it produces, and that containment will last for hundreds of years.
If the containment design is based on faulty water modeling, however, it will be nearly impossible to prevent catastrophic failure, and toxins like mercury, lead, and arsenic could work their way down the St. Louis River to Lake Superior. Containment will be expensive to maintain and could be abandoned eventually by PolyMet sometime after its mine closes.
We cannot simply trust PolyMet to do the right thing on its own. Plus, with the current political power in Washington, D.C., bent on eliminating environmental regulations and handcuffing enforcement agencies, there might not be anyone to force the company to do the right thing.
PolyMet supporters argue that the mine will bring good-paying jobs to the region. Let us all fully understand that the primary motivation of these multinational mining corporations is not providing jobs; it is making profits - and the more profit the better. It is a huge assumption there will be good-paying jobs. What will PolyMet's minimum wage be? Some point out that many taconite miners receive good wages and that, by extension, copper-sulfide miners will, too. Unfortunately, few realize that some mines pay considerably less than others. And when a union tried to organize miners at Mesabi Nugget, opened right next door to PolyMet in 2010, the vote was 2-1 against unionization.
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PolyMet does have a project labor agreement with the building trades for the construction of its mine facilities. However, there is the very real possibility PolyMet will sell its permit to mine before construction begins, and the new mine owner (Glencore?) could then choose to use non-union labor for construction. You may remember the 1989-'90 fight between the building trades unions and Boise Cascade's contractor BE&K when the contractor imported hundreds of non-union tradespeople from across the country (and elsewhere) to build the paper mill expansion in International Falls, Minn.
Originally, PolyMet's plan called for producing finished copper at a planned processing plant near Hoyt Lakes. Now the plan is to export metal concentrates, resulting in 40 fewer jobs for Northeastern Minnesota. The metals likely would go to a foreign country like China to be manufactured into products there.
Those manufacturing jobs belong in Northeastern Minnesota to expand our tax base and our economy here. Why aren't proponents fighting for those jobs, too? If PolyMet is allowed to proceed, we could virtually be giving away our ore while taking on a grave environmental risk, all for the benefit of a few international oligarchs. This is shaping up to be a bad deal for Northeastern Minnesota.
An evidentiary hearing regarding the PolyMet permit to mine would put these and other concerns before a panel of judges and would allow for a cross-examination of each side's claims, resulting in a truer risk-versus-benefit decision.
A vote last year by the Duluth City Council to ask the Minnesota DNR for an evidentiary hearing failed. Let us be clear when we vote on Nov. 7 that we consider it the job of the Duluth City Council to proactively protect our drinking water and those economic interests that come from a clean Lake Superior.
Mike Kuitu of Duluth is retired after 38 years as a building trades member. He is a former Carlton County Central Labor Body president and former Northeast Area Labor Council board member. He also is a member of the grassroots group Duluth for Clean Water.
