REGIONAL— U.S. Sen. Tina Smith has introduced a measure in the U.S. Senate that would make permanent the current prohibition on mineral leasing on 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest, upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park. That so-called mineral withdrawal was enacted by the Biden administration, effectively blocking development of the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine near Ely.
The 20-year mineral withdrawal provides only temporary protection, which is why BWCAW advocates have been seeking congressional action to provide permanent protection.
Sen. Smith’s bill does not restrict taconite or iron ore mining in any way.
“Beginning with President Theodore Roosevelt, generation after generation of our state and nation’s leaders have wisely taken action to protect the Boundary Waters,” said Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters. “Former Vice President Walter Mondale remained devoted to permanently protecting the Boundary Waters, calling it ‘the obligation of each generation.’ Today, Senator Smith is building upon this legacy.”
While Smith’s measure stands little chance of passage in the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate, as the first legislation to protect the 1.1-million-acre wilderness to be introduced in the Senate in nearly fifty years, the measure has symbolic importance.
Smith’s legislation is nearly identical to the bill that has been repeatedly pushed in the U.S. House by Minnesota’s Fourth District Rep. Betty McCollum, which shows bicameral backing for the bill.
The measure would essentially double the size of the mining protection area that was implemented around the Boundary Waters as part of the 1978 Boundary Waters Wilderness Act. That protection area was established to ensure that sulfide-based mining operations upstream of the BWCAW would not pollute the pristine water quality for which the canoe country is famous.
But outstanding mineral leases that were still in effect in 1978 prompted Congress to exempt a large portion of the upper Rainy River watershed from inclusion in the mining protection area. Those leases have since been canceled, although it’s possible the Trump administration may seek to reissue them.