From the Duluth News Tribune, by John Meyers
An 11th-hour effort has sprouted to stop a controversial peat-mining operation that was about to be developed near Big Falls.
Access roads already are being built to the site, in the Pine Island State Forest, and drainage ditches already have been logged. Quebec-based Berger Ltd., recruited to develop the project, was expected to start work later this year.
But local opponents now are asking the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the project.
RALLY NEXT WEEK
Two opposition groups, Save Our Bog and Friends of the Pine Island Bog, plan to rally Tuesday in International Falls, when the Koochiching County Board may discuss the issue.
And the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe in March passed a resolution objecting to the plan. Its action took place after a change in tribal leadership reversed the band's 2003 position of support. Red Lake leaders now say a former tribal chairman never had the authority to support the project.
Chuck Meyer, wetland specialist for the Red Lake Department of Natural Resources, said the band will ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke permits issued in 2004. They were issued under false pretenses, he said, and without complete information.
"We still have options, legal options. We think we can still stop it," he said. "The federal government has a responsibility to the band. That's enforceable, and the band has recourse. The Corps can pull permits."
Other opponents say they deserve another chance to stop the project, which they contend will disturb a remote, wild area, threaten the fragile bog ecosystem and spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for a handful of low-wage jobs.
"We're hoping to get public awareness of this because we don't think most people know about it," said Audrey Thayer of Bemidji. "We're trying to get our legislators to stop this. And we've asked the DNR to stop this."
"We know we're late into this," said Dave Thorstad of Bemidji, another opponent, "but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to stop this ridiculous project."
Other opponents are considering asking a state judge to issue an injunction based on what they say was a "defective Environmental Impact Statement."
AMPLE MOMENTUM
The DNR already has given its enthusiastic support for the mine. And the Koochiching County Board has been the primary spark behind 16 years of efforts to develop the site.
In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year dropped its concerns about the project's possible ecological effects. That final hurdle allows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits for an 840-acre bog.
In December, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, officials from UMD's Natural Resources Research Institute, Berger Ltd. representatives and Koochiching County officials all heralded the new mine -- the state's first new peat mine in years -- as a major economic breakthrough for a county that has struggled to add jobs.
This specific peat bog is one of only a few in the area not permanently protected as a state Scientific and Natural Area, and local officials praised the project as a moral victory in using natural resources for local economic growth.
NRRI peat experts say the Pine Island site holds one of northern Minnesota's best available deposits of semidecayed plants, or sphagnum peat, the bedding material nurseries and gardeners use to grow plants. But the institute's scientists have had limited success in developing new commercial uses and markets for peat. Efforts to develop peat for energy were abandoned as impractical.
45 NEW JOBS
The new operation will create about five full-time and 40 seasonal jobs. The positions, expected to pay about $8 an hour, will bring a $500,000 annual payroll, and the operation would pump about $2 million into the local economy, a 2001 economic study showed. Supporters predict spinoff jobs in pallet-making and trucking.
Mike Hanson, the Koochiching County Commissioner who represents Big Falls and who has spearheaded the project in recent years, says the economic impact will help fill a void left when a Boise Cascade mill closed in Big Falls two decades ago and after the Boise mill in nearby International Falls downsized its work force.
Big Falls shrunk from 600 to 300 people after its mill closed, and Koochiching County was one of only a few Minnesota counties to lose population in the last census.
Hanson said he's received no indication from state or federal regulators that they might reconsider the project's approval. Because opponents have threatened lawsuits, Hanson said the county board may not be able to discuss the issue on Tuesday.
"The permits are all in place. Berger is ready to roll. I don't see anything stopping this at this point," Hanson said. "People had literally hundreds of chances to comment on this. We're moving ahead now."
