I represent Minnesota's 6th Senate District. Five of our six taconite mines are in my district. You know where I stand on mining and jobs on the Iron Range, but maybe you don't know that the copper-nickel deposit in Northeastern Minnesota is not only the largest in North America but also is very low in sulfur. In addition, Minnesota has the most stringent environmental laws in the USA and maybe in the world.
Nonetheless, look how long it is taking for PolyMet to get permits - in spite of the fact the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has determined there will not be acid mine drainage.
On top of that, Twin Metals' potential project - which has not even been proposed yet because more exploration needs to be done - would produce upwards of $2 billion in royalties for the state's School Trust Fund for our 850,000 school kids.
It's absolutely outrageous that a moratorium on mining in 230,000 acres of federal forest and school trust lands has been proposed when there hasn't even been a mining project proposed.
It's government overreach at its worst, and it may even be unconstitutional. The original agreement on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, back in the 1970s, was to set aside the property that is now protected while allowing the rest to be developed. That agreement is now being reneged on.
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We in Northeastern Minnesota will be the first to tell you that we care immensely about the Boundary Waters. We care immensely about the quality of the water in Minnesota. Maybe that's why, after 135 years of mining, after winning two world wars, and after building our skyscrapers, our highways, and our automobiles, we still have, according to a Minnesota Environment and Energy Report Card from the Environmental Quality Board, the highest-quality water in our lakes and rivers of anywhere in Minnesota. That water quality is right here in Mining Country, USA. We are the Land of Sky Blue Waters. We live here. We work here. We play here. And we won't allow our area to become anything other than what it currently is: God's country. We get our drinking water from our pits.
Our very livelihood is mining and logging, and our natural resource-based economy is what allows us to exist. Without mining, everything changes and people leave. It has happened before.
We now have a chance to expand what we have with the next generation of mining. It'll bring new jobs. It has people seeing a new future, with a safe place to raise their families.
Our new-age economy of windmills (each containing about four tons of copper), solar panels, electric cars, catalytic converters, life-saving medical devices, military-defense systems, computers, cell phones, and on and on relies on these precious metals that are in our own backyard. We know how to take care of our own backyard.
Our nation cannot continue to rely on foreign sources for these products - nor should we. There's a certain amount of hypocrisy in espousing environmental responsibility while being totally willing to let irresponsible activities happen in other countries to have the above-mentioned niceties.
We have a proven track record of responsible mining here in Minnesota. We have environmental protocols in place.
It's time the U.S. Forest Service rescinds its order and allows Twin Metals the ability to explore. We have 3 million feet of drill core catalogued at the DNR drill core library in Hibbing from all over Minnesota. Not one of these drill holes resulted in any environmental issues. But much valuable information was garnered from each one, and more needs to be discovered.
If Twin Metals proposes a project, it will be subject to every scrutiny available - as it should be. But Twin Metals needs to be allowed the ability to explore the lands that contain the mineral deposit.
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Remember, if it hasn't been mined, logged, drilled, or farmed, it probably doesn't exist. Those 30-some minerals that are in a cell phone don't just magically show up in Apple's factories. They have to be mined. They should be mined here.
Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm represents Northeastern Minnesota's District 6 in the Minnesota Senate.
