https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/
Past federal protections against mining in the BWCAW watershed face challenges.
ST. PAUL — Minnesota legislators have introduced a bill to bar copper-nickel mines from developing within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The bill seeks to ban mining on state-owned land within the Rainy River Watershed and bar the state from permitting any mining or mineral exploration in that watershed.
Mining is banned in the BWCAW, but environmentalists fear, and a federal government study released under President Joe Biden said, that tainted runoff from mining activities outside the wilderness’ boundaries but within the same watershed could harm the downstream wilderness area.
The chief authors of both the House and Senate versions are each Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers from Eden Prairie: Sen. Steve Cwodzinski and Rep. Alex Falconer. “This is not an anti-mining bill, this is a pro-Boundary Waters bill. … Modern life requires mining. It requires minerals needed for cellphones and computers, etc.,” Falconer said at a news conference Thursday morning at the Capitol.
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