First District Commissioner • 100 No.

5th Avenue West, Room 205 • Duluth, MN 55802

Phone: (218) 726-2450 • Fax: (218) 726-2469 • Email: jewellf@stlouiscountymn.gov

Frank Jewell
County Commissioner
February 4, 2021

Honorable Tom Vilsack Honorable Deb Haaland

Nominee for Secretary of Agriculture Nominee for Secretary of Interior
U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Department of Interior
1400 Independence Ave., S.W. 1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20250 Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary-Nominee Vilsack and Secretary-Nominee Haaland:

We are writing to express our concerns about proposed sulfide-ore copper mining in the
headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Boundary Waters) and Voyageurs
National Park (Voyageurs), and to urge you to take all steps pursuant to the Federal Land Policy
and Management Act (FLPMA) to protect the entire watershed of the Boundary Waters and
Voyageurs.

As local elected officials, we know the importance citizens place on the wild north woods of
Minnesota. It is why many of them tell me they live in northeastern Minnesota and why others
say they have recently moved here. The Boundary Waters and Voyageurs are national treasures.
Sulfide-ore copper mining has a record of pollution and environmental degradation in the United
States and elsewhere in the world. Allowing this type of mining at the edge of the Boundary
Waters and upstream of Voyageurs, a unique and fragile ecosystem, would be a recipe for
disaster.

In 2016 the U.S. Forest Service concluded a three-year study of copper mining in the watershed
of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs and determined that this type of mining in this location
posed an unacceptable risk of harm to those priceless public lands and waters. The U.S. Forest
Service refused to consent to applications to renew the only two federal mineral leases in the
watershed and applied for a 20-year mineral withdrawal of 234,328 acres under FLPMA.

The Trump administration unlawfully reversed the cancellation of the two federal mineral leases
and halted the process for consideration of a 20-year mineral withdrawal. Both actions were
taken in the absence of any scientific or economic justification. Peer-reviewed science shows that
sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters will pollute downstream
lands and waters, and such pollution can never be fixed, mitigated, or remediated. Likewise, the
only peer-reviewed economic study that has addressed the cost and benefits of copper mining in
the Boundary Waters watershed concluded that copper mining is a net negative – the region
would enjoy more jobs and more income if copper mining were banned in the watershed.

“An Equal Opportunity Employer”

Accordingly, we encourage the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, and their subordinate
agencies the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, to take all necessary steps
to permanently ban sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.

Specifically, we urge you to:

1. Initiate and pursue the mineral withdrawal process for 234,328 acres of Superior National
Forest (SNF) lands in the watershed of the Boundary Waters, in accordance with
FLPMA.
2. Segregate 234,328 acres of federal lands and minerals from additional leasing and
approvals during the SNF FLPMA process.
3. At the conclusion of the SNF FLPMA process, withdraw 234,328 acres of federally
owned lands and minerals within the Boundary Waters watershed from the federal
mineral leasing program for twenty years.
4. Take any additional measures necessary to protect the BWCA watershed from the threat
of sulfide-ore copper mining.

We urge you to ensure that the full extent of the risks posed by large-scale sulfide-ore mining on
SNF lands in the Boundary Waters watershed is thoroughly considered in order to determine the
best course for the future of Boundary Waters, Voyageurs, and the communities that rely on
clean water, a healthy ecosystem, quiet beauty, and an amenity-based economy.

Sincerely,

Frank Jewell, Commissioner Patrick Boyle, Commissioner Ashley Grimm, Commissioner

St. Louis County Board St. Louis County Board St. Louis County Board

cc: Chris French, Acting USDA Undersecretary

Laura Daniel Davis, DOI Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management
Kate Kelly, DOI Deputy Chief of Staff – Policy

“An Equal Opportunity Employer”