When do we stop quoting examples that either do not apply to MN or are caused by willful human action (not by natural processes)? Because that is exaclty what the Berkley pit and Mt. Polly are.

I like how Vince-Carter writes....
Well guess what..even after John exposes the City's underbelly they are back at the meetings where only a few can hear and comment in a room of like folks. The City still will not allow a "mixed use" meeting (get it, pun on mixed use trail..haha). Keep them separate less they may learn from one another. The City administration is the official knower of all things! I have a real hard time understanding why Emily kept the two top dogs on in her administration. Might have been best for the public process to improve to replace those that have changed it so drastically.

Keep after them!

The Chisholm story would be ridiculous if it weren't for the fact that its about the Mayor.

spray nozzles? I flew in the military for twenty years and Gary finally busted us! Gawd

We don't mine sulfide, the amount of sulfuric acid in the iron out its where the good stuff is, is only .08%, not even 10% of 1% =0 acid tailings. Cut the crap on hurting our children. I think you better think about Lake Superior every time you flush your toilet.

Your comment gives me the opportunity to address some common misconceptions, which you appear to share.

“Sulfide mining” is just as accurate and accepted as nonferrous, copper-nickel sulfide, polymetallic, or metallic sulfide mining (used by the mining industry to encompass varied combinations of metals). Each sulfide deposit is mined for its sulfide minerals, named for the predominant metal(s) the sulfide ore contains (i.e. copper-nickel sulfide mining), and is broadly referred to as sulfide mining. 


The mining industry, particularly in Australia and Chile, uses the term sulfide mining. 


Until 2016 (when sulfide mine became sulfide deposit), Antofagasta’s homepage unapologetically stated, “About Us/Antofagasta Minerals”… “Los Pelambres: A sulfide mine located in the Region of Coquimbo, ... It produces copper and molybdenum concentrates through milling and flotation processes. … Esperanza: A sulfide mine located in the Region of Antofagasta, … It produces copper concentrate and gold through a milling and flotation process.”


Brian Gavin, CEO of Franconia Minerals before it was bought out by Duluth Metals, said, “Technically this is sulfide mining and naturally that’s going to raise environmental concerns.”

Sulfide mining does not refer to iron or taconite mining. The simple reason: “In contrast to iron ores, which are mostly oxides, most copper minerals are sulfides.” (Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity) 


“Earth’s most important iron ore deposits are found in sedimentary rocks. They formed from chemical reactions that combined iron and oxygen in marine and fresh waters. The two most important minerals in these deposits are iron oxides: hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4).” (Mines N Minerals.com) 


Hematite and magnetite are the iron oxides of Minnesota’s iron and taconite industry. Oxides. Not sulfides.


Why then is sulfate contamination a serious issue in taconite mining, with sulfate levels usually high above the regulatory standard of 10 mg/L for wild rice waters; elevated levels that also add to specific conductance toxicity? Some sulfur exists in the form of iron pyrite (FeS2); it is considered waste rock because the iron cannot be extracted economically, and when combined with oxygen the sulfur ion turns to sulfate.

“Pyrite is composed of iron and sulfur; however, the mineral does not serve as an important source of either of these elements. Iron is typically obtained from oxide ores such as hematite and magnetite. These ores occur in much larger accumulations, the iron is easier to extract and the metal is not contaminated with sulfur, which reduces its strength.” (Geology.com) 


The levels of sulfur mentioned above do not even come close to the concentrations of sulfur in the major copper-nickel sulfide minerals that are found in the Duluth Complex formation, such as in chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) and cubanite (CuFe2S3), two of the major minerals proposed to be mined. Unlike Iron Range formations, the copper-nickel formation and host rock – and the adjacent Virginia formation – all contain environmentally proven high levels of pyrite. These copper-nickel sulfur wastes will end up as sulfates in both the waste rock and tailings in vastly higher concentrations than in taconite waste or in waste from old iron mines.

Neither iron ore, nor taconite mining, would ever be considered to be sulfide mining.

Most importantly, I do not consider it “crap” to care about children who depend on all of us to protect them. Particularly when the Lake Superior Basin of Minnesota already has 10% of newborns tested found with unsafe levels of mercury in their blood, while Wisconsin and Michigan had 2% and 0% respectively. Mercury is a neurotoxin. Water wells near the PolyMet plant site already have high levels of manganese, another neurotoxin. PolyMet’s tailings basin has serious arsenic problems; arsenic is a neurotoxin. Nickel is another neurotoxin, possibly a mutagen. And Minnesota has already taken a top spot in more than one scientific look at autism prevalence nationwide.

As far as Doug Hasler is concerned, you've got him now. Good luck!

Thank you Loren.

How exactly would this not apply to MN?

And in the eyes of those who deny human caused global warming, those of us who raise valid red flags are just complainers and weaklings who can't stand the thought of a little rough weather in the future. Too bad that green energy is enjoying a surge in usage and popularity around the world, and could soon create more jobs, while eliminating hundreds of billions of costs needed to cope with the damage from future mega-storms.

Politicians often try to make their constituents focus on the "give me what I what I want now" syndrome. So if we get a small tax break, that justifies letting the top .1% get massive tax breaks, while they ignore the environment and send our education system back to the stone age, simultaneously tossing millions off of health care---and all the while trying to make us believe that those necessities make no difference at all?---err so let me say that again---hundreds of billions in aid for ahhh, environmental catastrophes happening today.... everywhere...errr no health care for 15 million, privatising public education and errr potentially raising the national debt by.... even more trillions in taxpayers errr dollars? Errr...what I mean is if...I mean why? Errr I'm getting so confused!

In the next elections Republicans are aiming to screw an incredible number of middle and lower people, most of whom have worked all their lives, and have always played by the rules. But this time the obscenity of their plans are far too devious to benefit any of us at all. So when we get into our voting booths lets not forget to kick the suckers in their big behinds and not fall for yet another devious illusion! Bill Clinton said it best at the 2012 Democratic convention--the Republicans screw things up, we fix them, and then they convince people to vote for them because WE are fixing their mistakes too slowly. What might bring us short term satisfaction is guaranteed to bring the Coke Brothers and other billionaires to the land of perpetual milk and honey--right after they pull the rug out from under us again!

I wish we could echo the attitude of the many people in European countries who earn much less but don't really care, because they get free health care, and the opportunity to use good affordable health care, etc. As Bernie Sanders said in this recent debate with Ted Cruz--"You've got to see the whole picture--If you have to pay $2000 a year in Health care costs, but save 15thousand in actual health care and health services, have a future guaranteed to include a much more affordable education, but still pay only an affordable tax burden, you'd errr....err. maybe you'd be screwed by errr.... Ahhh? What did Bernie say?

Let's not let the Republicans pull their devious illusions on us again--saying that Democrats are trying to make us fear losing money while painting common sense measure to bring real (net prosperity) to us all---as being bad advice. i.e. Even though many Europeans pay very high taxes, but don't care about their pay simply because they are guaranteed of having free or low income access to healthcare and the opportunity to obtain a real higher education? If we just quite saying "I want what I want when I want it," or want to take teh easy road now that will eventually become the hardest road we could really make some progress that might help us all.

Sorry for all the grammatical mistakes in my above post. It's late at night and I probably should be in bed.

I'd like to take a crack at Ms Lofald's argument also. There is a reason that, in logical discourse, analogy is considered the weakest argument. One can simply reject the analogy; "We're not talking about dentists!" I'll address it from a logical standpoint. This argument suffers from the fallacy of false equivalency. To truly be equivalent there needs to be some caveats, these dentists would first have to be mandated by the state to provide free dental care to anyone in their district, be non-profits and the dentist would have to be aware that a percentage of the patients are unhappy with the service they are getting. They would like to try someone else. In this scenario, any shrewd businessperson would rent the extra space. I'm surprised a seasoned debate coach would offer a fallacious argument.

Gary, I love your columns, and read them every week. I am also a writer and post online quite a bit. Here is a bit of advice I find useful. Save your column every 10 minutes or so as you are writing it. Then, here is the safety trick. As you do that, also highlight the whole text, copy it to your clipboard, and paste it into a Windows Notepad. So, you have a backup copy as you go along.

By the way, it is likely that you did save it, but in the wrong place (folder) and so don't know where to look for it. If you remember the title exactly, try doing a search using Windows Explorer.

Ha Ha Ha Ha. This is obviously a humor piece, correct? Although not very well written, it is quite funny. The orange baboon stopped making me laugh a long time ago, but Mr. Malachi manages to wring a few good ones out. If it was intended as a serious piece, I'd like to know what Mr. Malachi was ingesting. That, my man, is some seriously good stuff.

Too true, never knew it was possible until I dated one. Big mistake.

Hi John -- I am on your side here. Just want to clarify -- AA would not let you have Polly back even if you offered to pay the fee? Since there was already a prospective adopter? I am still thinking about this!!

We would have certainly paid the adoption fee, but we never got a chance to offer. Every Animal Allies employee we spoke with, from the receptionist up to the executive director, was adamant that we couldn't have Polly back, no matter what.

After my article came out, I heard from another person who had had the same thing happen to them. I wrote an item about it here:

http://duluthreader.com/articles/2017/06/22/10372_hartley_park_timber_sale

Awesome article!