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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

MPCA rejects U.S. Steel’s Dark River proposal

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 10/3/19

REGIONAL— An effort by U.S. Steel to reclassify a portion of the Dark River to allow for more sulfate pollution has been shot down, at least for now, by the state’s Pollution Control Agency. …

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MPCA rejects U.S. Steel’s Dark River proposal

Posted

REGIONAL— An effort by U.S. Steel to reclassify a portion of the Dark River to allow for more sulfate pollution has been shot down, at least for now, by the state’s Pollution Control Agency.

In a letter sent to the company on Monday, the MPCA announced that it was rejecting the company’s petition to change the use classifications for upstream portions of the Dark River, Timber Creek, and Dark Lake, in a manner that would allow continued discharges of highly-contaminated water from the company’s tailings basin north of Virginia.

That tailings basin discharges water that is high in sulfates and other contaminants into the Dark River through a surface discharge point. It also seeps large quantities of contaminated water into the Sand River, a tributary of the Pike River, which feeds Lake Vermilion.

The MPCA had initially expressed support for the U.S. Steel proposal, but faced opposition from tribal governments and environmentalists.

U.S. Steel’s petition was highly technical in nature and sought to change the official classification of a portion of the Dark River that supports wild and stocked trout. Public waters in Minnesota are regulated based on their classifications, which reflect potential uses of those waters, such as drinking water, recreation, industrial or agricultural irrigation. Those classes include: Class 1 (drinking water), Class 2 (aquatic life, recreation, and wildlife) Class 3 (industrial), Class 4 (agricultural), and Class 5 (aesthetic enjoyment).

Many public waters have multiple designated uses and, when taken together, those designations can impact the water quality standards that the MPCA is required to enforce for those lakes or streams.

U.S. Steel had sought to drop three designated uses, including drinking water, industrial, and agricultural, for the trout stream portion of the Dark River, which begins about a mile and a half downstream from Dark Lake. According to the company, the change makes sense, since the stretch of river is unlikely to be used for industrial purposes or agriculture and it is not currently used in any significant means for drinking water. The trout stream segment of the Dark River extends eight miles and is located within the Superior National Forest, about 16 miles northeast of Chisholm.

The agency, back in March, issued a call for public comments on U.S. Steel’s proposal, and MPCA officials indicated at the time that they were supportive of the proposed change, announcing that they were tentatively planning to develop a “use and value demonstration” to remove the uses as U.S. Steel is seeking, “based on the determination that the specific beneficial uses of drinking water, industrial consumption and agricultural irrigation do not currently exist for the trout reach portion of the Dark River, and are reasonably unlikely to occur in the future.”

Yet, in its Sept. 30 letter to Chrissy Bartovich, the director of U.S. Steel’s environmental division for its Minnesota ore operations, the MPCA’s Catherine Neuschler informed the company that its petition “does not support a review of the designated uses.”

But the MPCA is still not ruling out a change. Instead, the agency is requiring U.S. Steel to provide additional documentation to support its contention that the waters in question are not used for industrial purposes. The MPCA also noted that the company’s proposed change would not guarantee that the existing water quality in downstream waters would be maintained, as is required under state water quality rules.

dark river, us steel, minntac