I don’t know how many times I have heard at presentations concerning potential mining in the BWCAW watershed: “we have the best environmental regulations.”  That is usually followed by, we can do it safely here. 
The dispute over sulfate regulations to protect wild rice beds shows that such lines are a bunch of bunk, and allowing mining anywhere near the BWCAW portends a dark, polluted future for the jewel of the state of Minnesota.  Foreign mining companies, similar to now-foreign-owned U.S. Steel, will say anything to get permission to pollute.  They will promise to play by the rules, and then, whenever it is economically convenient or desirable for the short-term bottom line, fight such regulations and ask to be excused from following the law so they can continue to pollute our land. 
Don’t believe for one minute that your elected officials will have your back.  Those in the pocket of foreign corporations and special interests will rant and rave against government as the handmaidens of the wealthy as they fight against the average person.  Such politicians like Grant Hauschild will spurn your concern about your land and the rivers and lakes you enjoy.  Just look at Hauschild’s recent actions abandoning the interest of the many to please the monied few with regard to the wild rice standard.  This sad episode shows conclusively that only state protection of the BWCAW, and a prohibition on mining in her watershed, will suffice to protect our most valuable natural resource and the state’s greatest natural wonder.  Trusting those who ignore the science and treat the law as something to be ignored when the special interests call is a road to the destruction of the wilderness that belongs to every American.
Kelly Dahl
Linden Grove