Petition to Ken Martin and Governor Mark Dayton
Northeasten Minnesota is home to some of the greatest natural beauty America has to offer, notably the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The BWCA is on National Geographic's list of places you must visit during your lifetime. The surrounding area is home to pristine lakes and rivers and rural families like ours who came to this area for the beauty it has to offer. However, the entire area is under siege by mining activity and exploration for gold, nickle, copper and other non-ferrous metals; the dirtiest type of mining there is.
One need only google the Mount Polley mining disaster in British Columbia to see what this type of mining, sulfide mining, does to the environment. For us, this means devastation of the river we live on, our well water and destruction of the surrounding environment and devastation of wildlife. For the BWCA it is worse. PolyMet is a proposed sulfide mine just outside of the BWCA that is inching closer to approval with the help and support of Democratic politicians from the DFL party. These officials include Congressman Rick Nolan. For what, you ask? A few hundred temporary jobs and a few thousand votes.
Polymet will devastate a state, national and international jewel; the BWCA. Not only that, these mines are routinely abandoned with fluctuating metal prices, leaving the taxpayer to monitor the permanent pollution left behind. The final Environmental Impact Statement for PolyMet anticipates the necessity of hundreds of years of monitoring once the toxic lagoons necessary for the operation are created. PolyMet will not be around to try to contain the pollution for hundreds of years.
The State of Minnesota also actively encourages similar projects throughout the area. The State leases land for mineral exploration adjoining creeks and rivers, only excluding creek and river beds from this industrial process.
As a lifelong Democrat, I have come to the painful conclusion that unless Democratic Party leaders are shown that environmentalists, sportsmen, hunters, fishermen, and naturalists will not stand for the decimation of the great north woods, DFL politicians and party leaders will continue to pander to pro-mining interests. What good are temporary political gains for progressives if the environment is destroyed forever? Therefore, please join my wife and I boycotting and politician or party leader who supports sulfide mining. Withhold your vote and donations. Demand an answer from candidates where they stand on the issue when you get that next fundraising request from Al Franken or Amy Klobuchar. And, most importantly let them know that your support is tied to preserving the BWCA and the beauty of Northeastern Minnesota and boycott all pro-sulfide mining politicians, including the DFL contingent trading votes for environmental disaster.
Let Minnesota Democrats know that protecting the environment is a critical issue by Petitioning DFL Chair Ken Martin and Governor Mark Dayton at the attached link to Change.org.