August 31st, 2009 | 
AnonymousBreaking news: WaterLegacy Calls for New Process to Restore “Public” and
“Information” to the PolyMet Draft EIS Meeting Process.
See the December 8, 2009 Press release that summarizes needed improvements.
December 9 Star-Tribune story
WaterLegacy and other citizen groups are requesting additional public meetings, a more open public process and extension of the time for comment on the draft environmental impact statement until March 26, 2010.
Read the letter to the Lead Agencies ...
It seems from conversations with the MDNR that letters from environmental groups requesting additional time and meetings may be effective to improve the public process. Please feel free to adapt or borrow from the attached letter and send individual or group comments requesting an extended and improved public process.
Please also feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Flash! PolyMet draft EIS is NOT ready for prime time.
Citizen Comments on the PolyMet Project and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) are Critical!
Comments from members of the public and the communities likely to be affected by a project are critical to whether that project is given adequate scrutiny.
This is your chance to submit an official comment until February 3, 2010.
The PolyMet Company and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) announced that the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the strip mine would be released for public comment in November. This step in the process is supposed to mean that all of the project's environmental and social impacts have been studied and fairly summarized. Usually, it is a pretty short step from the draft EIS to the permitting process.
What neither the PolyMet Company (a small foreign company with a handful of employees, minimal assets and no experience operating a mine) nor the MDNR told the media is that both, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Tribal agencies who have participated in the whole process as "cooperating agencies", think the most recent draft of the PolyMet EIS is inadequate and unlikely to comply with legal requirements.
WaterLegacy issued a press release summarizing the highly critical and professional comments of these agencies. Some highlights:
* € The analysis of impacts on water resources is "fatally flawed."
* € The failure to analyze the effect of taking Superior National Forest land from the public and exchanging it for other land is a "red flag" for environmental review.
* € The strip mine would cause water pollution for at least 2000 years, if not perpetual pollution.
* € The most recent draft of the EIS doesn't discuss financial assurances to protect taxpayers if the PolyMet strip mine causes long-term damage.
Premature release of a draft EIS is a critical problem, because there is very limited time after a draft on which to comment, let alone conduct new technical analysis. WaterLegacy and nine other groups have requested at least 120 days for public comment, as noted in the press release.
The MDNR and the U.S. Corps of Engineers are legally responsible to make sure that the effects of the mine have been properly analyzed and that the Project will comply with federal and state laws. We believe that to delegate this huge task to citizens in the public review process is irresponsible.
Citizen Groups request 120-day comment period
In a separate action, WaterLegacy and nine other environmental and faith-based groups requested at least 120 days for public comments on the DEIS for the proposed PolyMet "NorthMet" strip mine project. Citing the size, complexity and precedent-setting nature of the project and the DEIS (over 1000 pages of text and figures, plus scores of technical documents), U.S. EPA also stated that the public comment period should be 120 days, rather than the minimum 45 days. There are comparable projects around the country that received at least that long for public review.
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