A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has revoked a key permit for the proposed NorthMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, formerly known as the PolyMet project. The Army Corps rescinded the permit, known as the Clean Water Act “Section 404” wetlands permit, because the agency said the it could not “ensure compliance with the applicable downstream water quality requirements” of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, whose reservation lies downstream from the proposed mine on the St. Louis River. The decision does not deal a...
In a forest several miles north of Grand Rapids, John Pastor places his hands on the trunk of a giant white pine, cranes back his neck and gazes up into its crown, a hundred feet above. “For me, I just get a feeling in my brain and my heart and my soul,” said Pastor, a retired University of Minnesota Duluth ecologist. “Good job, old boy. You survived all of this and you’re still here. Great job.” The tree is likely about 150 years old. That’s not even middle age for an Eastern White Pine. It wa... 
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Outside the wastewater treatment plant in the Iron Range town of Aurora, a small trailer could hold clues to solving a big environmental problem facing northern Minnesota — how to protect wild rice from sulfate, a pollutant released by iron ore mines, wastewater treatment plants and other industries. Mei Cai, an environmental engineer with the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth, points to a series of tanks where a chemical called barium chloride reacts with dissolved sulfate in the water to form p... Website
Just over a century ago, a work crew dug up the remains of nearly 200 Ojibwe people from a burial ground at the end of Wisconsin Point, a long peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior across the water from Duluth. Among the exhumed was Chief Osaugie, who signed two major treaties with the U.S. government in the mid-1800s. The remains were reburied in 1919 in a mass grave at St. Francis Cemetery on the mainland in Superior. The bodies were moved to clear the way for an iron ore dock and other infrastructure that U.S. Steel wanted to build. But... Website
Two northern Minnesota Native American tribes have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to reverse recent changes the state made to its water quality standards. The tribes argue the changes are likely to damage wild rice and pollute waters on their reservations and treaty-protected lands. The Fond du Lac and Grand Portage Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa filed the suit Thursday in federal district court. It seeks to overturn the EPA’s approval last October of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s recent overhaul of its Cla... Website
Members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe have voted in a historic advisory referendum to eliminate a requirement that enrolled members must have 25 percent tribal blood. Out of nearly 7,800 ballots cast, 64 percent of voters said the “blood quantum” requirement should be removed from the tribe's constitution, which was adopted under pressure from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1960s. In a second referendum question 57 percent said individual bands or reservations should be able to determine their own membership req... Website
On the first day of a first-of-its-kind public hearing this week on the fate of a key permit for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended against reissuing the permit, saying the project risked increasing levels of mercury and other pollutants in the St. Louis River downstream from the proposed mine. While only a recommendation, it could deal a potentially severe blow to the controversial $1 billion mine proposed near the northeastern... Website
With measurable snowfall coming to northern Minnesota the past week, cross country skiers are hitting the trails. And it’s a good bet that a majority of those skiers coat the bases of their skis in wax that contains per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances — a family of human-made chemicals known as PFAS — that have polluted water supplies around the world, including in Minnesota. The so-called “forever chemicals” are used in a huge variety of products, from nonstick cookware to fire-suppressing foam, carpet and clothing. For decades they’ve a... Website
For the first time, the Superior National Forest has a full-time tribal liaison. Juan Martinez coordinates communication between the national forest and the three Ojibwe bands in northeastern Minnesota - the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The bands occupied the nearly 4 million acres that now make up the Superior National Forest long before the federal government acquired it, and they maintain...
State transportation officials are posting 12 highway signs in northeastern Minnesota to mark the boundaries of a treaty signed in 1854 by the U.S. government and three Ojibwe bands: the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Minnesota Department of Transportation installed the first sign on Nov. 1 on southbound Highway 61, just south of the Canadian border and near the entrance to Grand Portage State Park.... Website
Hospital systems serving swaths of northeastern and northwestern Minnesota are struggling with the newest surge of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations amid a shortage of health care staff and rising numbers of non-Covid patients. “We were running as though it were a sprint to begin with. And it really turned out to be a marathon. And as any sprinter will tell you, you can’t run a marathon at that pace,” said Harmony Tyner, an infectious disease physician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth. The Essentia Health system, with operations in Minnesota,... Website
Minnesota's air quality has been exceptional for all the wrong reasons this week. On Thursday, an air quality monitor in Brainerd recorded the highest particulate reading ever recorded in the state, since the monitors were installed about 20 years ago. "And then a couple hours later, that smoke moved down to St. Cloud, and we broke that record in a matter of hours — at like 422 micrograms,” said Nick Witcraft, an air quality forecaster for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). “That was quite impressive to see." And those two recor... Website
A state court on Monday sent a key air emissions permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine back to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for further consideration and additional findings. The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the MPCA did not adequately explain its reasons for granting the permit, after environmental groups and the Fond Du Lac tribe alleged that PolyMet was engaging in so-called “sham permitting” by planning a much larger mine than what it applied for. It’s a setback for what would be the state’s first copper-... Website
The Minnesota Court of Appeals handed a major victory to Enbridge Energy this week, affirming state utility regulators’ approval of the Canadian company’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project. A three-judge panel ruled 2 to 1 that there is substantial evidence to support the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s approval of the project. The PUC approved a certificate of need for the Line 3 project twice — in 2018, and again last year. The commission also granted the project a route permit, along a different route than the current Line 3....
For more than a year, Minnesota has been operating under some level of restrictions, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But soon, most of those restrictions will be lifted. Gov. Tim Walz last week unveiled a three-step process to remove most Covid-19 pandemic restrictions by May 28, and end the statewide mask mandate by July 1 — sooner, if 70 percent of Minnesotans 16 and older receive at least their first vaccine dose. The first step went into effect May 7, when crowd-size and capacity limits on outdoor dining, events and get-togethers were r... Full story
In late February, Taysha Martineau walked out of the protest camp she built in a small patch of woods near her home on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and knelt in the middle of the road. Elders from her community surrounded her, scolding, telling her to leave. "Go," they shouted. "We want you out of here. Don't do this to us." For several weeks, Martineau had been welcoming activists to the plot of land she had dubbed Camp Miigizi - which means "eagle" in the Ojibwe language - to take part... Website
A federal judge says Enbridge Energy can proceed with construction on its contentious Line 3 oil pipeline, less than a week after a state appellate court panel also denied a request from Minnesota tribes and environmental groups to temporarily block work on the project. The Red Lake Band of Chippewa, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Sierra Club, and the Native American-led environmental group Honor the Earth filed suit in federal court in December, seeking to overturn a key permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the same time,... Website
Duluth's Lakewalk hugs several miles of the city's Lake Superior shore, from the Canal Park tourist district all the way to Brighton Beach. With its sweeping view of the lake and the city, the trail is a destination for locals and the more than 6 million people who visit the city every year. But for the past few years, it's also been an active construction site, as the city slowly rebuilds the Lakewalk after sections of it were ripped to pieces by a series of intense storms a few years ago -... Website
MPR News With COVID-19 cases moderating — but still high — across the state, and the first doses of a vaccine slowly rolling out, Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday he’s extending some of the restrictions on businesses and social gathering announced in November, while lifting or softening others. Most notably, the current month-long ban on indoor bar and restaurant service will extend through the typically busy holiday season, until Jan. 10 — but limited outdoor dining will now be allowed. Rules restricting social gatherings have been loosene... Full story
State regulators agreed June 3 to hold an additional hearing on a key permit for the proposed Line 3 replacement project, a process that is expected to delay construction of the controversial oil pipeline by several months. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced that a contested case hearing will be held later this summer on a draft water quality permit for the project, in which a state administrative law judge will hear additional evidence on the proposed pipeline’s impacts on wetlands and stream crossings. The decision to hold t...
The Cook County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a travel advisory at its meeting in Grand Marais, requesting that seasonal or second homeowners stay home for the time being. "Due to our very limited health care infrastructure, please do not visit us now," the advisory reads. The growing spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by a coronovirus, has the state of Minnesota basically closed - with schools and businesses consider nonessential idled. Read the whole story here:...
