Hotspotoutdoors

20 million is what happens when over regulated to the point of wanting to do business out of state or out of the country.

And under regulation gives us financial meltdowns.

These regulations are needed or we'll be back to dumping raw sewage into the river in the name of "more jobs". 20 million is a drop in the bucket to what they're going to be hauling out of there.

I hope it all works out and the mine starts operating, people get the much needed jobs and all the local merchants start making money again.

I'm glad you underlined and put "over" in bold because that was exactly my point. Regulations are necessary but many are not, hence the "over" in my post.

Surely you remember Perpich asking Wisconsin to sue Minnesota so the legislature would have to come up with the money to separate the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers in the Twin Cities.

It wasn't industry that was unwilling to pay the money to do the job, it was politicians and twin cities home owners.

I would agree it is over regulated but when gets the Gov involved, thats the game sadly. Regulation is fine if it not overblown.

ya i dont think it should take 20mil so someone uses the sewers
this is 2009 not 1950 !!!!

You of course realize that the City of Duluth craps directly into Lake Superior when it rains hard enough. Say all you want about evil corporations and Big Bad Mining Companies, but the City of Duluth (hardly a bastion of right-wingers) can't seem to solve its sewer issues.

It appears the rest of the country is going to be expected to pony up to fix that little problem - because the residents can't be expected to do so.

Would be nice if govt would/could live by the same regulations that they expect businesses to live by.

If I remember correctly, "Friends" of the Boundary Waters is a group of lawyers from the Twin Cities, and their primary interest seems to be in perpetual lawsuits...

By the way, whatever happened to Acid Rain? This was a really hot environmental topic a few years back.

Well, once the utilities spent millions of dollars per power plant on sulfur dioxide scrubbers and built new power plants that burn exclusively low sulfur western coal, (The reason for the proposed rail expansion through Rochester.) the acid rain problem started to be reduced. Of course this was over 20-30 years.

being as i dont live up in the duluth area
no i didnt know they were dumping into superior
i actually thought that was a get come back story up there
that it had been cleaned up pretty well

The government finally made Reserve Mining stop dumping tailings into lake superior some years ago. Judge Miles Lord ruled that there were things that looked like asbestos fibers getting into Duluth's water supply.

Check it out, it wasn't exactly the mining industry's shining hour. Has the leopard really changed its spots?

Oh, and whatever did Mintac do with that nasty water in the settling ponds that was leaking into the rivers that they also wanted to pump into the rivers since it was getting too grody to use to make pellets?

There was an EIS in 2004 http://www.pca.state.mn.us/news/eaw/mntac-surfacewater-pgs125-126.pdf

and this blurb from a steel industry newsletter.

"MPCA approves EIS on US Steels Minntac discharge

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agencys Citizens Board has approved an environmental impact statement on US Steels proposed discharge of up to 7.2 million gallons per day of chemically tainted water from the companys Minntac tailings basin, north of Virginia. The company is seeking to discharge the water into the Dark River and the Sandy River-Pike River system

The approval completes the first phase of the US Steels effort to obtain a new discharge permit. Company officials have indicated they need to draw down water in the Minntac basin and replace it with fresh water, in order to reduce chemical concentrations. The water in the basin is currently recycled for plant operations and the concentration of some chemicals has reached the point where it is corroding plant equipment and increasing maintenance costs.

Company spokesperson John Armstrong said recently that US Steel plans to move forward with the permitting request. That effort will require a new public process and hearings, which likely would not be completed before fall of 2006."

I can't find out what happened. Last thing was public comment period in 2008.

Anybody know?

Could anybody let me know if ethanol plants go through the same scrutiny as these mines do when they submit an application for construction?

Yes,they face the exact same scrutiny because both types of production are exactly the same.
Ey yi yi....

Don't know...maybe they figured out a way to use the chemicals in those "earth friendly" Prius batteries??

The one proposed for Eyota, MN outside Rochester certainly drew a great deal of scrutiny.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/12/eyota_ethanol/

(google eyota ethanol for more stories) I hope posting that news link was ok.

Yeah, I'm sure.

More like a fast-track application and rubber-stamp grant process with a little window dressing to make it look good.

For some folks,presenting facts is futile. A closed,rigid,unbending mentality towards always being right and never seeing another point of view is not a waste of a good mind,it's a good mind already wasted.

You need to say that while looking in the mirror.

Total carp.
I try to keep an open mind about all things and listen to both sides before casting judgment.

Unlike what you just demonstrated-but I expected as much.

Awwww comon you can't say something like and expect all of us to let a setup like that to slip by, can you??

I just want everyone to get along and love each other.

From the Duluth News Tribune, if anyone wants to attend.

upnorth ??
will you attend that ??

I am not totally sure what I am doing tomorrow, much less 5 weeks from now.