Global Courant 2023-05-13 02:02:58
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a requirement for iron mining operations in Minnesota and Michigan to reduce their emissions by 57% by the end of 2026. The eight iron operations covered by the proposed rule account for almost all domestic iron production. “We’re glad to finally see some limits to this pollution,” Earthjustice attorney James Pew said of the new regulations, though he argued the EPA should have gone further.
Federal authorities have proposed new regulations that would force the iron mining industry in Minnesota and Michigan to reduce its mercury emissions.
The rule announced last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency follows two decades of litigation and other pressure from tribes and environmental groups that have long urged the agency to introduce mercury limits.
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The six iron ore processing plants in northeastern Minnesota should reduce their emissions by 57% by the end of 2026. They are the largest source of mercury pollution in Minnesota, accounting for about half of emissions. The rule also applies to two mining operations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Virtually all iron ore processing in the US takes place in those mines in Michigan and Minnesota.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 21: U.S. President Joe Biden talks with EPA Administrator Michael Regan (L) after signing an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. Regan’s EPA has proposed a new rule that would require iron miners in the Upper Midwest to cut their mercury emissions by more than half before 2027. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“We’re glad there are finally limits to this pollution,” James Pew, an attorney with Earthjustice, told Minnesota Public Radio. He sued the EPA on behalf of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and two environmental groups.
But Pew said the EPA should have gone further, especially considering the limits would have been put in place decades ago. Congress in 1990 first required the EPA to set mercury emission standards for the plants by 2000, but the agency never did.
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“Instead, the agency has allowed it to build up over the past 20 years, and mercury is a persistent pollutant, so we still have all of the mercury that has been released into the environment over the last 20 years,” Pew said.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said factories must submit updated plans in spring 2024.
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Cleveland-Cliffs and US Steel own and operate the eight iron mines and mills in Minnesota and Michigan. They told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that they are reviewing the draft limit. US Steel has previously said that none of the available technologies could meet the 72% cut and that 30% was more realistic. The MPCA has disputed that, saying technologies are available.
