Oberstar's HR 4292 is a "sellout": Selling Superior Forest land to Polymet for its disastrous proposed copper-nickel-palladium mine near Hoyt Lakes and within the Duluth area watershed:
Please link to this Duluth Tribune story by John Myers, who has written extensively on this issue, and let Rep. Oberstar know this sale of forest land to a private mining company with intent to destroy the environment is unacceptable.
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On the Internet
Bill sells Superior National Forest land to Polymet
John Myers Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, June 06, 2008
The federal land is precisely where the company hopes to mine for copper, nickel, platinum and palladium as early as next year.
It would be the first major sale of Superior Forest land to a private company.
The bill, HR 4292, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has not advanced in any committee.
Without legislation, the Forest Service is prohibited from selling any land to a private party, though exceptions are made for tracts smaller than 10 acres, said Jim Sanders, supervisor of the Superior National Forest.
Instead, the Forest Service usually trades land with property owners. The Forest Service has been negotiating with Polymet for about a year to exchange the land for other land in or near the Superior National Forest, Sanders said. But a land exchange of this size is more cumbersome, forcing Polymet to find multiple willing sellers, bargain over price and acquire purchase agreements.
The legislation would require the Forest Service to use money from the sale to buy private land of equal value in or near the Superior National Forest boundary. The bill exempts the land sale from a separate environmental review, but supporters note that an environmental review of the mining project is under way.
Supporters say the bill simply speeds up the process of trading the mine land for other forested land.
“The legislation gets us to the same end, the same result as a land exchange,” Sanders said. “It’s the same value, the same appraisal process, whether it’s a sale or exchange.”
Selling the land directly to Polymet probably would speed up the process by a year or so because it avoids the environmental assessment required with a land exchange and allows the Forest Service to deal with directly with willing sellers.
“We think it avoids a lot of duplication on the environmental assessment. … And it saves a lot of time and effort for both us and the Forest Service,” said Latisha Gietzen, Polymet vice president of public, environmental and government affairs.
Mineral rights vs. land ownership
Sanders said the Forest Service purchased the land from U.S. Steel in the 1930s but has never owned the mineral rights below the surface. Polymet controls those mineral rights.
Polymet officials say they had been moving ahead with mining plans, assuming their mineral rights “superseded” surface ownership, Gietzen said. Regional U.S. Forest Service officials last year informed the company that they didn’t hold the same legal opinion.
Rather than battle it out, the two sides agreed on the legislation to sell the land, Gietzen said. But if that fails, the company still could try to sue the government to gain access to the minerals.
“We certainly can challenge their opinion. … But nobody wants to go that route,” Gietzen said.
Because the 6,700 acres is surrounded by mining-related activities — a railroad to the south and an active taconite mine to the north — Sanders said it makes sense to sell the land and use the proceeds to buy other, more environmentally sensitive land closer to the heart of the forest.
The forest covers more than 3 million acres; about 2 million of that is owned by the federal government. There are hundreds of tracts of private, state and county-owned land within the forest boundaries.
Sanders said he is eying private land in the Kawishiwi River area, near Trout Lake, the Fernberg corridor and near Mud Lake, where landowners are willing to sell and where “it makes sense to consolidate our holdings.”
But critics of copper mining in the north woods say the legislation seems to offer a special deal to the mining company.
The land in question includes undeveloped forest and 1,200 acres of wetlands, said John Doberstein of Duluth, chairman of the Mining Without Harm committee of the Minnesota Sierra Club. The bill was introduced in December with no announcement.
“Not only does the bill exempt them from doing an Environmental Impact Statement [on the sale], it also sets a dangerous precedent of taking public land and transferring it to a private company for their profit without any public input,” Doberstein said. “This really seems to fast-track the land sale for the convenience of the company, without any regard whether this is the right thing to do with the forest.”
Critics say that copper mines in other areas of the world have almost always brought extreme environmental problems.
John Schadl, an Oberstar spokesman, said the bill was introduced at the request of the Forest Service and Polymet to speed the company toward mining operations.
“It’s an effort to expedite the process but still do it in an environmentally sound way,” Schadl said. “And the bill as it is now [will] not be the same bill that moves. … There will be some changes.”
No Senate version has been introduced yet.
Congressional action to sell national forest land to private parties is not unheard of, Sanders said. About a dozen such bills have been passed in the past decade, he said.
Polymet would be Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine. But Polymet is only one of several companies eyeing rich deposits of copper, nickel, platinum and palladium under northern Minnesota forests and lakes. The interest is being sparked by record-breaking prices for those minerals and new technology that make it easier to separate copper from other rock.
Polymet is the farthest along toward developing those minerals and has purchased land, processing equipment and buildings from the former LTV Mining site near Hoyt Lakes. The company’s proposed open pit mine on federal property is several miles away toward Babbitt and would be connected by railroad to the processing plant.
http://www.sosbluewaters.org
Alert on HR 4292: Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007
HR 4292 mandates a sale of approximately 6,700 forested/wetland acres of Superior National Forest land near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, to PolyMet, Inc., a Canadian company hoping to open the first metallic sulfide copper strip mine in Minnesota. The U.S. Forest Service owns the surface rights to the land, but not the mineral rights. The underlying purpose of this bill would be to benefit the mining company by eluding steps in the standard land exchange process which includes public comment and environmental review.
Progressing with land transfer before completion of the environmental process
According to HR 4292, the U.S. Forest Service would be given required to sell 6,700 acres of public land to PolyMet before completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This is contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act (1969) and negates the purpose of the EIS, which is to allow for disclosure of environmental impacts of an action and for public input. There is an existing process for the Forest Service to exchange lands with private companies but exchange takes place after review that is open to the public in the form of an Environmental Impact Statement. This bill would circumvent that existing process.
This bill would also require the U.S. Forest Service to assume the responsibility for wetland replacement credits over a ten year period. The Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the Forest Service, is responsible for assessing impacts and mitigation alternatives for wetlands as part of the PolyMet EIS process. In addition, the Wetland Conservation Act of Minnesota is intended to prevent further loss of wetlands within the State. Thus HR 4292 is contrary to both Federal and State law.
HR 4292 further disregards public input by specifically denying appeal of the outcome.
Special favors for mining companies
The U. S. Forest Service owns less than half of the mineral estate in the Superior National Forest and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Likewise, the Forest Service lacks mineral rights to many of its lands nationwide. This bill, if passed, could set precedence for the sale of public lands to private mining companies across the country. It would also open the doors for a dozen other mining companies who are currently exploring the Duluth Complex of rocks throughout Minnesota and other sulfide mineral deposits in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These sulfide-bearing rocks encompass an area that extends underneath the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and between Voyageurs National Park and Lake Superior, before dipping down into the southern part of the state.
Ignoring potential harm to the environment
At the same time that a bill designed solely to help PolyMet bypass existing environmental and public disclosure law is being circulated through the halls of Congress, PolyMet is downplaying the potential effects of acid mine drainage. Sulfuric acid is a byproduct of metallic sulfide mining and in all previous mines required perpetual treatment of any affected watershed.
PolyMet spokesmen claim their company is "following all of Minnesota's environmental laws." HR 4292 seems contradictory to this statement.
Action requested Concerned citizens need to contact their U.S. representative, and Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman in opposition to HR 4292. More specifically, citizens can request an explanation from Rep. Oberstar regarding the intention of this bill to circumvent current environmental law, to sell public land for private investment, and to ignore opportunity for public input as part of the environmental impact statement process.
Primary Contact;
Senator Amy Klobuchar http://klobuchar.senate.gov/
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IEN news release
The Sale of Federal Lands to a Mining Company in the 1854 Treaty Area of Minnesota
Representative James Oberstar from Minnesota’s 8th congressional district has introduced HR 4292 in the U.S. House of Representatives. This act, titled - the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007 – would, require the Secretary of Agriculture to sell certain lands in Superior National Forest in Minnesota to Polymet Mining Company within 180 days of enactment. The act requires:
(1) The sale of 6,700 acres of Forest Service lands;
(2) The first offer for the sale of the lands under this Act is to be made to Poly Met Mining, Inc explicitly for the purposes of strip mining;
(3) Elimination of the requirement for public disclosure and environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Compliance under NEPA is usually met by the writing and review of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that informs the Secretary, affected federally recognized Tribes, and the public about possible environmental impacts of a federal land exchange. A major environmental impact will be the mining company dredging or filling with mine waste 1,200 acres of wetlands included in this sale adjacent to the Partridge River, a tributary of the St. Louis River. The St. Louis River flows through the Fond du Lac Indian reservation on it’s way to Lake Superior.
(4) There can be no administrative appeal of the sale.
(5) The sale must take place within 180 days of the enactment of the act.
This legislation would create a precedent by which the Superior National Forest could sell public lands each time a mine gets close to the permitting phase of development. This act relieves the Forest Service from their responsibilities to protect public lands here in Minnesota. This could become a precedent elsewhere each time a federal land agency chooses to ignore it’s mandated management responsibilities on order to expedite mining operations.
Exchanges of federal land routinely happen all over the country. The Bureau of Land management and U.S. Forest Service conduct approximately three hundred land exchanges annually. There is a process delineated in law (the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976) that describes how this happens for both Bureau of Land Management holdings as well as U.S. Forest Service. There is no need to introduce legislation that circumvents existing law. There is a time tested federal process in place that gives the Secretary of Agriculture, the public, and Federally Recognized Indian tribes input into the land exchange process. While this process does not guarantee that all concerns are addressed, it guarantees that concerns are heard. The proposed legislation would take away the right for all citizens as well as other state, tribal, and federal agencies to have their voices heard on this land exchange.
This sale will have, as yet, undetermined impacts on treaty-reserved rights in the 1854 treaty area. There will be both short-term significant environmental consequences in the form of filling or draining approximately 1,200 acres of wetland and long term environmental and water quality degradation in the form of discharge from large waste rock piles. Loss of wetlands coupled with runoff from the mine waste stored on this site can adversely affect water quality as well as other cultural, and natural resources for miles downstream from the mine site. Chemicals from existing iron mines have already been detected in the St. Louis River where it enters the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation.
Let the Minnesota congressional delegation know that there is no need to sell this Forest Service land as proposed in HR 4292; there is an existing land exchange process that should not be circumvented. Let them know that all U.S. citizens and the tribes in the region have a right to express their views on the fate of this land. Let them know that there is an existing process for this type of transaction and that you favor the use of that process.
The author of H.R. 4292, The Superior National Forest Adjustment Act of 2007, is:
Congressman James L Oberstar
Eighth Congressional District of Minnesota
Duluth Federal Building, Room 231
Duluth, Minnesota 55802
(218) 727-7474
TDD: (218) 727-7474
FAX: (218) 727-8270
or
2365 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6211
FAX: (202) 225-0699
http://www.oberstar.org
In the Senate, Amy Klobuchar is considering the introduction of companion legislation:
Senator Amy Klobuchar
1200 Washington Avenue South, Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Main Line: 612-727-5220
Main Fax: 612-727-5223
or
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3244
Fax: 202-228-2186
For additional information, contact Robert Shimek, IEN Mining Projects Coordinator, 218-751-4967
To the editor:
I am writing to inform readers about H.R. 4292, the Superior National Forest Land Adjustment Act of 2007, which is being sponsored by U.S. Representative James Oberstar. The sole purpose of this bill is to fast track a land sale between the U.S. Forest Service and PolyMet, Inc. in anticipation of the permitting of PolyMet’s proposed metallic sulfide mine near Hoyt Lakes.
The U.S. Forest Service would be given the authority to sell 6,700 acres of public forest land to PolyMet without any environmental review of the sale (which goes against current Federal law) and to assume the responsibility for wetland replacement credits over a ten year period (which goes against current wetland policy). Any administrative appeal would be denied. This bill would specifically help facilitate the permitting process for PolyMet.
The bill, if enacted, would also set a precedent for the selling of public land to private mining companies nationwide, based upon the fact that the U.S. Forest Service does not often hold the mineral rights to its lands.
Considering that PolyMet spokesmen claim they are asking for no favors and are following all of Minnesota’s environmental regulations, it seems a little strange that a bill designed solely for the benefit of PolyMet is currently circulating through the U.S. Congress.
At the same time, PolyMet is downplaying the effects of acid mine drainage, a problem associated with metallic sulfide mines, and which basically requires perpetual treatment. I believe it’s time for area citizens to take a closer look at the effects that the permitting of an entirely new mining industry will have upon the Arrowhead Region, and upon future generations.
Please let your elected officials know that you oppose this bill.
Sincerely,
Elanne Palcich
Chisholm, Minnesota
218-969-9557/218-254-3754
Blog-
There is a bill in Legislature in Minnesota to allow the National Forest Service to sell, directly to Polymet mining, 6700 acres of Superior National Forest, with no public hearing, no Environmental Impact Statement, nothing. that land includes 1200+ acres of wetlands.
My question is: why would the NFS suddenly, with no notice, place a bill to sell DIRECTLY, with NO public input, land to a mining company, land...that is the publics land?
Incidentally, Polymet intends to, within 12 months, have an open pit mining operation in place and active in that land. Have you seen what damage an open pit copper mine DOES to the earth?
WHY ARE WE ALLOWING THIS?
Contact your fellow environmentalists and please, make this an issue of contention. Its important!!!
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