APG Specialty Publications 00_IRON_MINING_ASSN_19_BOOK_NEW | Page 18

IMA COMMITTEES' YEAR-IN-REVIEW
ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE
The IMA Environmental Committee, along
with facility operators, unions, and community
members, spent a significant amount of
2018 on the wild rice sulfate water quality
standard. After a roller coaster end to the
legislative session ultimately the Governor
vetoed two versions of a bill intended to
put the sulfate rule on a path forward. The
Governor issued Executive Order 18-08, and
subsequently 18-09, creating a Wild Rice Task
Force to evaluate a number of questions
scripted in the 18-08 order. The Task Force
was named in September and has a deadline
of December 15, 2018 for a report to be
delivered to the Governor’s office.
Another potentially significant rulemaking
was the federal Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation
and Liability Act (CERCLA) 108b regulations
for hard rock mining financial assurance.
Significant efforts were expended to inform
the regulators as to the lack of risk posed by
iron mining and the state regulations already
in place, by both the IMA and our national
partners. As a result of our combined efforts,
in February 2018 the USEPA determined
additional regulations were not necessary,
which has been appealed by several non-
governmental organizations.
The remainder of 2018 will be spent working
on wild rice, mercury reduction plans, the Risk
and Technology Review (RTR) with USEPA
on the Taconite MACT and commenting on
water regulations, among other activities.
18 | Iron Mining Association of Minnesota
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE
The IMA Government Affairs Committee
was hard at work during the fall of 2017
and throughout 2018. Beginning in the late
summer of 2017 the Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency (MPCA) came out with a
proposed new standard to an outdated
sulfate rule. The new rule was an attempt
to create more clarity around the possible
impacts of sulfate on wild rice. Through
the MPCA’s own research, sulfate did not
appear to have much of an effect on the
growth and health of wild rice, rather, rather
sulfide appeared to “plaque the roots” of the
plant hindering its growth. The MPCA’s new
proposed rule took into account the levels of
iron and carbon in a given water body and
required much more close monitoring of wild
rice water bodies. The new rule also added
a host of new potential wild rice lakes to the
MPCA’s list of protected waters. Each of the
additions proposed by MPCA created greater
uncertainty in the regulatory process and
extensively more cost.
In response to the confusion and costly
implication over the proposed new standard,
the IMA joined a coalition effort made up of
communities, labor groups, other business
groups, and local elected officials to halt the
rulemaking process and lobby the legislature
for a new direction.