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St. Paul, Minn.--The
Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has sent a letter to the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator at Region 5 in Chicago asserting the
EPA was wrong to disapprove a water-quality variance for the Mesabi Nugget
facility that it had earlier approved. The letter requests the EPA to
reconsider and reverse its decision.
A
variance authorizes a facility to discharge more of a pollutant than would
normally be allowed for a specified period of time. The Mesabi Nugget variance
relates to four pollutants (hardness, bicarbonates, total dissolved solids,
specific conductance) in wastewater discharged from a pit at the facility. The variance
did not include an exception for the sulfate water quality standard that
protects wild rice.
The
Mesabi Nugget facility is located on a portion of the former LTV Steel site
near Hoyt Lakes, Minn. Water in the mine pit on the property exceeded water
quality standards for the four pollutants covered by the variance at the time
of the LTV Steel shutdown. In order to comply with the standards for the four
pollutants, the facility needs time to identify, install and test a set of treatment
technologies that cannot simply be bought off the shelf. Therefore, in close
consultation with EPA, MPCA worked out a variance in 2012 containing a schedule
for the discharge to come into compliance by 2021.
Water
quality standards are developed to protect specific uses such as drinking
water, industrial use, irrigation and protection of aquatic life. The variance
was for standards that protect for industrial and irrigation use. Neither of
these uses are known to exist downstream of the discharge. EPA’s July 2 letter
states that “MPCA adequately provided for the attainment and maintenance of the
water quality standard of downstream waters.” For instance, the permit contains
conditions to ensure protection of aquatic life (fish and aquatic bugs) and
prohibits a discharge from April 1 to Aug. 31 for protection of wild rice.
EPA
approved the variance as part of the reissued water quality permit in 2012. However,
it reversed its decision in a letter to the MPCA dated July 2, 2014, disapproving
the variance. The key reason EPA cited for changing its position was the length
of time allowed for the discharge to come into compliance. EPA alleged the MPCA
had not fully justified the length of the schedule. EPA did not assert or
suggest that they reversed their decision based on any scientific or technical
issue or deficiency. The MPCA letter also says that EPA did not take into
consideration a permit provision that authorizes MPCA to shorten the compliance
schedule if the company is successful in finding solutions earlier.
This
is new territory for both agencies, according to MPCA Commissioner John Linc
Stine, who said he could not recall an instance where EPA had disapproved a
variance that it had previously approved.
“We
worked hard over many months with the EPA’s regional staff on the variance in
2012 which resulted in the initial EPA approval of the variance. We value our
working relationship with Region V EPA staff. But after taking time to review the
basis of the recent decision to disapprove the variance and to consider the
implications of that decision, we have decided to ‘strategically oppose’ EPA.
“Our
decision to grant the variance was based on sound science and careful
reasoning, and we are fully prepared to defend it,” Stine said.
Broadcast version
The
commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has sent a letter to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking the EPA to “reconsider and reverse”
its decision to disapprove a variance for the Mesabi Nugget facility that it
had earlier approved.
The
variance gives the facility a schedule to comply with limits on four pollutants
in the discharge from water-filled pits left over from the years that LTV steel
operated the facility near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. EPA had approved the variance in December
2012 but reversed that decision in a letter to the MPCA earlier this month.
Commissioner
John Linc Stine said in the letter, “Our decision to grant the variance was
based on sound science and careful reasoning, and we are fully prepared to
defend it.”
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