Judges Uphold Air Quality Standards at Taconite Plant
A three-judge panel for the Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and ruled that the air at Northshore Mining Co.’s Silver Bay taconite processing plant will continue to be compared to fiber levels in St. Paul.
According to an article in the Duluth News-Tribune, the judges upheld the 34-year-old rule instituted by the MPCA in the interest of protecting the health of residents near the taconite plant.
“The standard was first imposed in a federal court ruling in 1974 and has since been included in operating permits issued by the MPCA to the company,” the article notes. “It requires that Silver Bay air be tested for asbestos-like fibers, and that the results be regularly lower than samples of St. Paul air.”
The ruling comes as the state begins to fund research to determine why so many Iron Range workers and residents have died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer. Some experts believes the miners were exposed to commercial asbestos used for industrial insulation in the mines, while others say the miners were exposed to natural asbestos-like fibers found in ore dust, the article explains.
The fibers are found in certain rock formations under the eastern Iron Range. These fibers came to the attention of the general public in the 1970s when Reserve Mining, Northshore’s predecessor, was ordered to stop dumping taconite tailings in Lake Superior because of potential serious health effects.
Northshore officials have declared the current standards “unnecessary and outdated” and insist that the iron ore the company mines and processes does not contain asbestos. The court didn’t buy that argument.
“Northshore cannot point to an adequate substitute for the ‘control city’ standard that is now in effect,” the decision concluded. “Thus, the standard is not obsolete and its elimination from the permit would be a major amendment.’’
