REGIONAL—Insisting that a new water quality standard could bankrupt Iron Range communities and shut down the region’s taconite industry, about 75 people, mostly steelworkers, rallied in Virginia on Tuesday ahead of a five-hour public hearing sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The hearing, which was presided over by an administrative law judge, was one of several being held around the state to take public testimony on the agency’s proposed new variable sulfate standard, designed to protect wild rice.

But speaker after speaker at Tuesday’s rally said there’s no scientific evidence showing that the new standard would actually benefit wild rice, and that meeting the standard would cost communities in the region billions of dollars.

“It’s an attack on our way of life,” said St. Louis County Commissioner Tom Rukavina, who criticized the University of Minnesota scientist John Moyle, whose pioneering research on wild rice led to passage of the state’s original sulfate standard back in 1973. “This rule has never been passed by a Minnesota legislator, or by a federal lawmaker. It’s been by bureaucrats,” he said.

Yet lawmakers have weighed in on the standard more than once— and several vowed to do so again in the upcoming legislative session. “I’m working on a bill,” said Rep. Jason Metsa, of Virginia, who has teamed up with Sen. David Tomassoni to place a moratorium on the proposed new rule.

Ironically, it was Iron Range legislators who convinced the Dayton administration to revise the sulfate standard, which led to Tuesday’s hearing. The Legislature had initially funded new research to determine whether the state’s strict 10 mg/l standard is scientifically valid, but when that research largely confirmed the link between sulfate levels and the production of toxic sulfides in aquatic sediments, the agency initially proposed keeping the old standard in place. But Iron Range legislators intervened and convinced the governor that a new rule was necessary.

They passed a law two years ago that required the MPCA to develop and enact a new standard by 2018. The MPCA issued a draft of the new standard in August and Tuesday’s hearing was part of the public review of that proposal. MPCA officials say that final standard will likely be ready by late 2018, in compliance with the Legislature’s directive, that is unless Iron Range legislators seek to block it again.

The push to amend the water quality standard came as the agency took steps to begin enforcing its original sulfate standard, which had been in state rules for decades but had been largely ignored. While the new standard would apply across the state, it would almost certainly require Iron Range taconite plants to undertake some level of clean-up, since the operations are generally significant dischargers of sulfates. Iron Range political leaders argue that the cost of clean-up could be prohibitive at a time when the industry is already facing competitive pressures from an over-saturated global steel market.

About ten years ago, Minnesota Indian tribes and environmental groups began pushing the MPCA to start enforcing the state’s wild rice standard out of concern for the decline of wild rice in parts of the state, particularly in northeastern Minnesota.

But opponents of the new standard say it’s not just taconite plants that would be affected. Sen. Tomassoni said the cost to community wastewater plants on the Iron Range would be staggering. “To add another $10-$12 million to community infrastructures is just not doable and is not necessary because we have no proof that these sulfate standards will help wild rice grow.”

MPCA officials have largely discounted the claims that enactment of a new standard will place huge new costs on local wastewater treatment facilities. Shannon Lotthammer, director of the MPCA’s Environmental Analysis and Outcomes Division, acknowledged that the cost of treating sulfates would be extremely high, but said that fact in itself is justification for issuing variances to most dischargers, including community wastewater treatment facilities.

“We know that for virtually all wastewater treatment facilities, the technology is unaffordable. So they would very likely apply for variances,” she said.

Steve Giorgi, executive director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools, says he doesn’t buy it. He said applying for variances could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and he notes that just six variances are currently in place around the state.

But Lotthammer said the number of variances ebbs and flows over time. “The lack of numerous variances right now may be much more a reflection of a lack of need in the recent past rather than a difficulty in obtaining a variance.” She said the high cost of treating sulfates means that “variances will be a tool that is employed more often going forward until treatment technology or prevention options advance.”

Lotthammer added that the agency “now has expertise and staff time available to develop evaluation tools to add clarity and improve the efficiency of variance reviews.”

Such assurances are unlikely to placate local political leaders, union officials, or taconite producers, who said they’re united in their efforts to block enactment of the latest MPCA proposal.