05.15.19

Chair Grijalva, Rep. Lowenthal Strongly Condemn Interior Department Renewal of Mining Leases Near Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, today strongly condemned the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) decision to renew two mining leases for a possible copper sulfide mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota, despite scientific evidence, economic data, ongoing litigation and a public record of opposition dating back 50 years.

 DOI’s decision comes shortly after Grijalva, Lowenthal and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, sent a March 1 letter asking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to explain unusual actions their respective agencies took to advance the construction of this mine. DOI never sent the lawmakers a substantive response. 

Today’s Bureau of Land Management press release announcing the Boundary Waters decision falsely attempts to justify the mining lease renewal by saying its “leads to the development and production of critical minerals in an environmentally responsible, regulatory-consistent, and economically feasiblemanner.” 

Setting aside the fact that the proposed mine would permanently pollute BWCAW with highly toxic acid mine drainage, the minerals that would be produced – copper and nickel – are not in short supply. They were not included in the Trump administration’s already overly broad critical minerals list.

“This administration has never seen a mining, drilling or logging project it won’t permit, no matter the damage and no matter the public costs,” Grijalva said today. “Today’s announcement is part of a broader pattern that the administration’s apologists seem to love. Time and again, sensitive public lands are put at risk to keep industry happy regardless of public wishes. We’ll be paying for the environmental and public health costs of these giveaways long after Trump leaves office.”

“The unilateral action by Trump administration to drive forward the foreign-owned copper sulfide Twin Metals mine is unacceptable,” Lowenthal said. “I have been working with my colleagues to get answers from the Interior and Agriculture departments regarding the lease outside the Boundary Waters Wilderness since the administration announced its intent last year. The administration has never been forthcoming about their decision-making process, why they cancelled an environmental review, or how involved the White House was behind this decision. The pristine nature of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and its downstream communities are at a terrible risk if this copper sulfide mine continues. I will do everything I can to ensure that it does not.”

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