Proposed mining operations get their environmental advice from strange quarters

The summer of 2011 arrived in northern Minnesota just as Tony Hayward got his life back, hired as Glencore's "executive expert in charge of environment and safety." Glencore, the financial giant with the troubled reputation, is backing PolyMet's NorthMet Project - the first proposed sulfide mine in Minnesota.

Hayward, you'll recall, was chief executive of British Petroleum when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank last year.

Meanwhile, Twin Metals, a joint venture of Canadian Duluth Metals and Chilean Antofagasta, is also proposing a sulfide mine, situated on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Perhaps Twin Metals was following Glencore's example when it chose to contract with URS Corporation for an environmental impact study - thereby giving URS a second chance in Minnesota.

URS is the company that did the structural inspection of the 35W bridge in 2006 and released its executive summary in January 2007 - without declaring the bridge unsafe - approximately six months before the collapse on Aug. 1. The same company that wrote, when summarizing its fatigue study and listing recommendations:

"This approach is generally most conservative but its relatively high cost may not be justified by the actual levels of stresses the structure experiences."

A company that essentially ranks money higher than safety is not the firm that Minnesota needs as its environmental consultant. Yet Christopher Dundas, chairman and CEO of Duluth Metals, was quoted in The Business Journals as saying, "Twin Metals' commitment to northern Minnesota and environmental stewardship requires the reputation and experience of a company such as URS."

Maybe Dundas should ask Minnesotans how they feel about URS. Some people may remember the URS internal e-mail that read: "We will not calculate actual capacities of all the connections since that is too much work, although that provides the most accurate results."

Minnesota is being told to risk its lakes for sulfide mining - which has no record of being done safely - while mining companies go for their financial backing and environmental consulting to corporations with records of failure, inferior work and environmental abuses.

PolyMet is now tied to Glencore, which had no problem hiring Tony Hayward after BP's Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Twin Metals seems to have had no problem hiring URS after the 35W Bridge tragedy.

PolyMet and Twin Metals may not have qualms about making such connections, but Minnesotans need to ask whether we do - and whether we can believe companies that make such choices - before our treasured lakes become the next headline.

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C.A. Arneson, a retired teacher, lives on a lake near Ely.