We’ve got some good news to share! On Wednesday, April 28th the Minnesota Supreme Court announced its decision to order the DNR to hold a contested case hearing on PolyMet, Minnesota’s first proposed and previously permitted sulfide mine. This decision overturns the permit to mine: it is a big deal and something downstream communities have been advocating for for years. The Sierra Club has been supporting legal challenges to PolyMet -- as a co-plaintiff challenging the air permit and as an “amicus curiae” challenging the dam safety permit -- because all Minnesotans, especially downstream communities of the Fond Du Lac Band and Duluth, deserve the right to clean water.
We share our gratitude for and congratulate the lead litigants in the PolyMet cases: the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, Water Legacy, and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Community members gather for a socially distanced and masked press conference held outside
of the St. Louis Courthouse in Duluth, MN. Credit: Tom Thompson.