Two Ojibwe tribes say 45-year timeline for Minntac pollution is too long
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In 1966, a state wildlife survey found wild rice growing thick on Little Sandy Lake, just north of Mountain Iron in the northeastern part of the state. Sandy and Little Sandy lakes could produce about 200 acres of rice in a good year.
The next year, U.S. Steel's Minntac taconite operation opened nearby.
By 1987, state surveyors reported that wild rice was, "for all practical purposes," gone from both lakes. The 1854 Treaty Authority has surveyed Little Sandy regularly since 2006. In 2024, researchers found only two stalks of wild rice.
That history is laid out in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's own documents for Minntac's new permit.
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Both Sandy and Little Sandy lakes are within the 1854 ceded territory, about 5.5 million acres across northeastern Minnesota where tribal members exercise treaty rights, including harvesting wild rice.
"It's essentially gone in the lakes," said Darren Vogt, resource management division director at the 1854 Treaty Authority, which manages natural resources for the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
MPCA says Minntac is the only possible source of the high sulfate in these lakes. Both lakes sit downstream of Minntac's tailings basin, a wastewater pond covering more than 13 square miles with no liner at the bottom. Water carrying sulfate seeps out through the ground and into nearby lakes and streams.
State regulators say research has found sulfate can damage wild rice, even at low levels. Little Sandy Lake now averages more than 250 milligrams per liter of sulfate. The state's limit for wild rice waters, set in 1973, is 10 milligrams per liter. Nearby lakes untouched by mining average less than 3, according to MPCA documents filed with the draft Minntac permit.
The water flows from these lakes into the Sand and Pike rivers and on to Lake Vermilion. MPCA counts 14 wild rice waters downstream of Minntac. Half are listed as impaired by sulfate.
MPCA has written a new permit that would, for the first time, require Minntac to meet the wild rice sulfate standard in Little Sandy Lake. It sets a separate limit on the Dark River, west of the tailings basin, to protect wild rice in Dark Lake downstream.
But the MPCA’s permit timeline gives U.S. Steel as long as 45 years to meet those limits. That’s far too long, leaders of the Bois Forte and Grand Portage bands said at a panel discussion in Grand Portage on Wednesday.
"We believe that this permit is going to be the model for current and future permittees," said April McCormick, secretary-treasurer of the Grand Portage Band.
Tribal leaders say they haven't ruled out legal action.
"We're prepared to seek every opportunity that we can to make a change right here and now," McCormick said.
In an August letter to MPCA, Grand Portage said it could ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strip Minnesota of its authority to issue federal water permits.
Minnesota set its wild rice sulfate limit more than 50 years ago. Only recently has the state moved to enforce it at Iron Range taconite mines. The Minntac permit is a major test. It's open for public comment through Oct. 12.
Bois Forte Chairman Carlos Hernandez said band members should not have to wait another generation for clean water.
"Our children shouldn't have to inherit our deadlines. Our grandchildren shouldn't have to sit in another meeting decades from now, asking why everybody knew there was a problem but nobody required it to be fixed," Hernandez said.
'Tribes are for responsible mining'
Tribal leaders were quick to say their push isn't about shutting mines down.
"I just want to make sure that everybody's clear that we're not against mining," Hernandez said. He pointed out that Bois Forte band members work in the mines.
"It's ridiculous because we're Iron Rangers ourselves," he said. "To think we oppose them is ridiculous when we work there. All we're asking for is for it to be done responsibly."
McCormick said she's heard for years that tribes oppose the industry.
"That narrative needs to die," she said. "Tribes are for responsible mining."
Jobs are at the heart of the debate around the state’s wild rice water quality standards. Last year, hundreds of people packed a public meeting in Virginia on a similar sulfate permit for U.S. Steel's nearby Keetac mine. Mine workers and union leaders warned that the cost of meeting the wild rice standard could force mines to close in a region that depends on high-paying mining jobs. U.S. Steel said water treatment at Keetac alone would cost more than $800 million. MPCA said at the time that the company had shown enough cash flow to afford it.
A 45-year timeline
The tailings basin at Minntac leaks in two directions, according to MPCA. To the east, polluted water flows toward Sandy and Little Sandy lakes. To the west, it flows into the Dark River and on to Dark Lake.
On the east side, U.S. Steel plans to build an underground wall down to bedrock to stop most of the leaking. But the polluted water already in the ground still has to work its way out. A consultant hired by U.S. Steel estimated that would take about 45 years. MPCA says the real number could be anywhere from about 22 to 67 years. The agency chose 45 years as the outer deadline.
Federal law requires the company to meet the limits "as soon as possible." The draft permit requires U.S. Steel to also build a system that actively cleans the water on the east side of the tailings basin, such as pumping out groundwater and treating it within eight years.
In response to questions from MPR News, U.S. Steel spokesperson Andrew Fulton confirmed the company will test groundwater pumping, as required.
On the west side, U.S. Steel must build a water treatment plant within six years. But no one has estimated how long the Dark River will take to recover. MPCA used the same 45 years as a stand-in. In its fact sheet for the new permit, the agency writes 45 years "is not the correct final date" and says it will lower it as new information becomes available.
Caring for the water
In a written response to MPR News, MPCA spokesperson Dan Ruiter described the draft as "the most protective yet for Minnesota's wild rice waters."
The Bois Forte and Grand Portage bands plan to ask the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board for a broader study, called a generic environmental impact statement, to better understand the cumulative impact of extractive industry in the 1854 ceded territory.
Instead of reviewing one project at a time, the study would look at the combined effects of past, present, and proposed mining across ceded territory. If a GEIS study moves forward, the bands want the state to hold off on approving new mining projects.
McCormick said the state too often reviews mines "just one at a time."
"We really want to know what the waters can actually handle," McCormick said.
