TOWER — The city council here politely declined to go on record in support of a pollution variance for U.S. Steel’s Keetac operation, despite a concerted effort by Mayor Dave Setterberg to convince councilors to throw their support behind the effort.
Setterberg was seeking council backing to sign a letter from Iron Range mayors in support of a variance that would allow the taconite operation near Keewatin to continue to discharge sulfate well in excess of the state’s 10 mg/l standard for discharges into wild rice waters.
The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools, which receives considerable funding from the mining industry, is spearheading the letter-writing effort.
A sample letter issued by RAMS cites the revenue that area communities receive from the taconite industry and the jobs it creates as the reason to support Keetac’s variance request. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has already denied a request by U.S. Steel for a higher discharge standard, a decision that the state Supreme Court recently allowed to stand. The MPCA also recently denied a request by the company for a variance for the Keetac facility.
U.S. Steel has argued that a clampdown on its sulfate discharges could put the continued operation of the facility at risk. It currently employs about 450 people.
Setterberg told the council that stricter enforcement of the sulfate standard could hit small communities like Tower with astronomical costs.
“If they start enforcing this to all the communities, what this means is we would have to put in maybe a $15 million plant and the only way to get rid of it is reverse osmosis,” Setterberg said. “And the biggest thing with that is the $15 million is a drop in the bucket because maintenance and hiring more people actually manage the plant is how this is really going to affect us.”
Setterberg said he had taken three water samples from the Tower-Breitung wastewater discharge and had them sent in for testing, which showed two of them exceeded the standard, although he did not say by how much.
Setterberg said he had recently met with area legislators, who were going to try to loosen the wild rice standard. The Legislature attempted to make such a change ten years ago but discovered that loosening a science-based standard requires new data to support the change.
A study commissioned at that time by the Legislature confirmed the validity of the existing 10 mg/l rule and so the MPCA opted to maintain the standard.
While councilors expressed support for the mining industry, they were less sure about backing the variance request without knowing more about it.
“Personally, I can’t speak for the council, but I don’t have any knowledge of the science,” said Councilor Joe Morin. “I don’t have any knowledge of what the variance would look like or entails in terms of discharge.”
Aaron Kania, who was in the audience, challenged some of the claims that Setterberg was presenting to the council and argued that the bigger issue for the Tower area was the connection between sulfate discharges and the methylation of mercury, which converts elemental mercury to more toxic methyl mercury, a toxin that is well-proven to bioaccumulate in fish tissues.
Mercury in fish, like walleye, in northeastern Minnesota has led to fish consumption advisories for many lakes in the region.
Councilor Kevin Norby agreed with Morin that while he supported the mining industry, he was reluctant to go on record in support of Keetac’s variance request without knowing more about it.
Councilor John Van DeVoort asked whether Setterberg could simply sign the letter himself, since he seemed supportive of it while others on the council had reservations. Setterberg suggested it would be stronger with full council support.
Norby jumped in. “Since they’re looking for a mayor’s signature, I’m totally in favor of you making the right decision,” he said, prompting laughs across the room.
In the end, Setterberg asked for a motion to support the letter, but no member of the council wanted to make one. Councilor Bob Anderson, who had expressed a willingness to back the letter at one point, said he felt no motion was better for Setterberg’s case than a failed motion.

Ambulance and fire department updates
In other business, Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz gave an update on emergency services, including the continued progress of the ambulance service, which has seen an improving financial picture for at least the past year.
The service has turned to several city and ambulance staff to manage the administrative and operational tasks of the service while ambulance supervisor Dena Suihkonen is recovering from a severe back injury which has left her paralyzed below the waist. Schultz said the city is looking at a number of long- and shorter-term options for addressing the needs of the service in the wake of Suihkonen’s injury.
He noted that a surprise state inspection of the service, which came just moments after the crew had returned from a run, found no problems.
“They received 100 percent passage,” said Schultz. “The inspector was impressed.”
Schultz told the council that the fire department spending was likely to go considerably over budget this year as the department was trying to address a laundry list of equipment issues that had been ignored over the past few years.
He said there were a number of repair needs with the city’s PT-1, their primary pumper tanker, which had been neglected in recent years. He estimated the cost of repair of all the items could run as high as $15,000 and that the repairs would take the truck out of service for about a week. The council gave approval to the additional spending and getting the work done on PT-1.
Schultz said the city’s new interim fire chief, Steve Freshour, was working out well so far. He said they’ve received no responses to their posting for a permanent fire chief.

Other business
In other business, the council:
• Heard that progress is continuing on the water and sewer extension for the harbor and Marjo developments. Schulz expected to have documents to allow for bidding for the water and sewer work shortly and said the council may have to have a special meeting later this month to authorize going out for bids, hopefully for completion yet this fall. He noted that staking for the first two twin home units at the harbor was set for this week, with construction getting underway as early as next week.
• Approved re-activating the city’s Finance Committee to seek advice from area banking and financial experts on the best option for the city to renew a lease agreement for the communication towers on the hill above the city’s north side. The company Tower Alliance, a leasing consultant working for American Tower, is trying to come to a long-term agreement with the city and has provided a variety of proposals, but Setterberg said he’s not comfortable assessing their ultimate value to the city without some expert input. The lease has the potential to provide the city a significant financial windfall assuming the parties can reach an agreement.
• Discussed options for rerouting a portion of the Prospectors ATV trail near the city’s gravel pit in order to reduce damage to a portion of the Howard Wagoner ski trails, which is used by the ATV trail in the summer but has caused significant rutting at times. The council approved a preliminary motion to approve using Option C, which will skirt the gravel pit on the east side, for a reroute of the ATV trails. That approval will allow the engineers on the project to move forward with the environmental work so construction could begin next summer.
• Approved a motion hiring Kathryn Hill to the ambulance service as an EMR, pending successful completion of a background check.
• Approved a motion to accept a $57,000 MnDOT aeronautics grant to pay for a new airport zoning plan. They subsequently approved a motion to hire SEH to complete the work.
• Briefly discussed but took no action on a letter from Tower Vision 2025, which is interested in donating locally made “doggy duty” stations. They would come with two compartments, one for plastic bags for collecting dog waste along with a separate compartment that holds dog treats. The request is expected to be back on the council agenda in September.
• Unanimously approved the new forestry plan, which was largely drafted by Aaron Kania, a member of the forestry board. “It’s a good document, kudos to Aaron for the work,” said Morin.
• Approved a motion to allocate about $200 from the city’s portion of the proceeds from the former Gundersen Trust, now under management by the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation, to provide the new Gundersen Trust Endowment Committee with some funding to advertise the availability of grant funds. The committee will begin soliciting grant applications soon, with the application period opening on Oct. 7. The committee has about $13,000 for grantmaking this year.