Opponents of U.S. copper mine warn of pollution threat to Canadian waters
OTTAWA— A new cross-border flashpoint between the United States and Canada threatens to flare as American opponents of a proposed mine call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help halt the project that could pollute Canadian waters and a pristine Ontario wilderness park.
Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, has written directly to Trudeau to flag her fears and to ask him to weigh in.
In an interview, McCollum said the U.S. owes Canada some answers by next Tuesday about how approval of a copper-nickel sulphide mine planned for just across the border in northeastern Minnesota will adversely affect one of the largest fresh watersheds in this country. That’s because McCollum, who chairs the interior-environment subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, tucked language into a U.S. government spending bill late last year to protect the watershed. The White House removed most of that language, but a requirement remained that directs the U.S. State Department to report to Congress on the effects of copper-sulphide mining on the international waters shared with Canada, and to do it quickly.
The report is due Feb. 18.
McCollum and environmentalists south of the border say there is no way to protect the forests and freshwater basin from tailings and waste produced by the proposed mines.
She is furious that the Trump administration reversed an Obama-era ban on mining leases for federal lands in the sensitive area and cancelled a study into the environmental impact.
Right now, McCollum said, “You can dip a cup into the lake and drink the water because it’s so fresh and pure.”
However, she said if there is a spill like the 2014 failure of a copper mine tailings dam in British Columbia, the largest environmental mining disaster in Canadian history, “there’s no redo, there’s no second chances. This is not an area where, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work out, it’ll be OK.’ The water’s destroyed and so is the land.”
Twin Metals is owned by the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta. For about a decade, it has been testing at the site in Minnesota and putting its plans together. It submitted the plans to state and federal regulators in December. The next step is environmental review and permits.
The plan is for a copper-nickel underground ore mining operation that would be located within a national forest, a few kilometres from a popular U.S. wilderness area known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which spills into Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario near Thunder Bay.
The proposed site sits in the Rainy River drainage basin, which feeds into the two parks and a web of rivers and lakes in Ontario and Manitoba leading all the way to Hudson Bay and Nunavut.
It’s just the latest foreign policy challenge in the Canada-U.S. relationship.
Trudeau, who campaigned on an explicit promise to protect Canadian fresh waters and wilderness areas, has clashed repeatedly with the Trump administration over NAFTA renegotiations, softwood lumber and U.S. demands to increase defence spending. On top of that, Canada is paying a steep trade and diplomatic price for angering China after it agreed to a U.S. request to arrest Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou, with two Canadians detained and two others suddenly facing the death penalty. But Canada has gotten little help from the U.S. in its efforts to ease Chinese retaliation.
Nevertheless, McCollum believes Trudeau could have an impact on how the debate over the copper mine is unfolding in the U.S. by highlighting Canada’s concerns over the mine.
In a Dec. 21 letter, she reminded him that a 1909 bilateral treaty puts obligations on both countries to prevent pollution of the “irreplaceable natural resources we maintain in partnership.”
In northern Ontario, across the border from the proposed site, news of the planned mine has begun to ripple outward, but for the most part, there has been little publicity in the rest of the province or beyond.
Lac La Croix is one of many small Indigenous communities in the path of potential pollution from the mine. The community hunts and fishes for food and wilderness guiding is their main livelihood. The band sent a letter to the U.S. government in 2016 asking that the leases for the mine be withdrawn and the watershed protected.
“No one really knew about it and then we acted as soon as we found out. I’m surprised Canadian officials aren’t bringing it to the people of Canada. People need to get in the boat,” said Curtis Atatise, a council member of the Lac La Croix First Nation.
Some state officials are supportive of the mine. They point to the expectation of 700 highpaying jobs and the economic spinoffs. And the mine sits on one of the largest copper-nickel deposits in the world.
Demand is expected to grow because these metals are critical for future technology such as windmills, mobile phones and solar panels.
Copper is used in the motors, wiring and batteries of electric vehicles and is in charging stations.
But opponents say coppersulphide can create acidic runoff that leaches heavy metals like lead and mercury into the water.
The Canadian federal government quietly expressed concerns to the U.S. last year during a period when the U.S was accepting public comments as it reviewed the plan.
Eric Walsh, director general for Global Affairs’ North America branch, wrote in Jan19, 2019: “Canada is concerned about the potential of increased mining activity within the basin which could contaminate boundary waters if not properly assessed and managed, putting Canadian water quality and ecosystems at risk.”
However, environmentalists south of the border say U.S. officials did not reply to Canada. The Star could not confirm that, or whether Trudeau has privately expressed his own concerns to the Trump administration.
Neither Global Affairs Canada or the prime minister’s office responded to the Star’s request for comments about this story on Tuesday.
The Star contacted the company, but also did not receive a response.