Viewpoint: Montana knows the true cost of mining mistakes

Randy Newberg

Like a lot of Montanans, I measure decisions about public lands through hard-earned experience, not political talking points.

I’ve spent most of my adult life in Montana. I’ve built my career here and raised my family here. But I grew up in northern Minnesota, just west of the Boundary Waters.

As a kid, I fished for walleye on Birch Lake, southwest of the Wilderness boundary, and I remember the signs posted at the landing: Don’t eat the fish. Mercury levels too high. Those warnings weren’t theoretical. They were the result of mining waste that found its way into the water. Back then we were told “the solution to pollution is dilution.” Time proved otherwise.

Now Congress is considering a fast-track move that could open the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to a massive copper-sulfide mine by overturning a 20-year leasing moratorium. Instead of going through the normal public process – the science, the public comment, the financial scrutiny – lawmakers want to use the Congressional Review Act to wipe it away with a simple majority vote.

That shortcut alone should give people pause.

If there’s one thing Montanans understand, it’s what happens when mining promises don’t pan out. We’ve seen it: the Berkeley Pit, the Clark Fork cleanup, Zortman-Landusky. It’s always the same story from this kind of mine: orange water, dead fish and water you can’t drink.

In each case, companies promised jobs and prosperity. In each case, when markets turned or costs mounted, companies went bankrupt or walked away. The pollution didn’t leave with them. The bill didn’t disappear. Taxpayers picked it up. And we’re still paying for those decisions decades later.

Copper mining isn’t new. It happens all over the Southwest where the soils, geology, hydrology and dry climate make the risks easier to manage. But the Boundary Waters sit on the Canadian Shield: thin soils, hard rock and water everywhere, including thousands of connected lakes and streams. Once contamination starts moving through a system like that, you don’t just clean it up. You manage it for generations.

That’s not politics. That’s chemistry. That’s hydrology. It’s also risk-based economics.

Supporters argue the mine could create several-hundred good-paying jobs. I don’t dismiss that. I grew up around small towns like Ely and Babbitt. I know what it feels like when mills slow down and work dries up. Jobs matter.

But we also have to ask the next question: jobs for how long, and at what risk?

Independent analyses suggest Northern Minnesota could lose more jobs overall if outdoor recreation and tourism decline. And when the operating company is foreign-owned, traded overseas and structured through limited-liability subsidiaries, history tells us something else: When things go sideways, the bankruptcy attorneys make sure these foreign companies aren’t the ones left holding the shovel.

Instead, the burdens fall on locals – and taxpayers.

So why rush this one? Why bypass public input, which was used to put the protections in place to begin with? Why use the Congressional Review Act to avoid the hard questions? Good projects shouldn’t need political shortcuts. Chemistry, hydrology, geology and economics prove that the lowest cost/lowest risk copper mining is in arid states that produce most of America’s copper. In the face of all of that, Congress wants to use the CRA to remove years of public comment. Why? Because there are political debts to be paid. And most often, those debts get paid by you, the American taxpayer, and by the wild places and wild things we love.

Even if you never paddle a canoe in the Boundary Waters, places like it matter, just like the Bob Marshall or the Beartooths matter here at home. These landscapes define us. Once they’re compromised, you don’t get them back.

For many of us, this issue is personal. A lot of Montanans have ties to Minnesota, including Sen. Tim Sheehy, who grew up there. That shared history should make this decision less abstract. We know these waters. We know these communities. And we know what happens when water pollution outlives the companies that create it.

When this resolution comes before the Senate, I hope Sen. Sheehy and Sen. Steve Daines take a hard look at the history – not just the promises – and choose the careful path. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s about risk, accountability and whether we pass an unfunded liability to the next generation.

If you feel the same way, let our senators know. Call their offices. Send an email. Public lands decisions shouldn’t be rushed through procedural loopholes without public input.

We’ve learned these lessons in Minnesota and Montana, more than once. We don’t need to learn them again. 

Randy Newberg is a hunter and host of the Fresh Tracks and Hunt Talk podcasts. He lives in Bozeman.