Document XRVjKKpe9dKzn2yO89r4oR1xy

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1974 Feb 10 DOC NMA082 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Court Bids Company End Dumping in Lake Superior Company Court Bids Company By JANE BRODY End Dumping in Lake Supertor New York Times Currenfit le F^,b10 1974 ProQuest Histoncal NewspaperThse New York Times 1851 - 2002 Court Bids Company End | | in Lake Superior Dumping | i ' By JANE E. BRODY A Federal judge has warned pollution has sought to the Reserve Mining Company prove that asbestos fibers from of Silver Bay Minn to the stop rocky waste are contamin dumping its waste into Lake astuimnegdthbeywtahtoesreawndhobeidnrginkcoint- Superior or face the possibility to the possible detriment to that its large plant will be or their health | der^,d closed upon conclusion The Government also con- of apollution trial some three months from now The warning was issued dur- a Federal District Court suit seeking to stop the dump- ing of waste that the Govern ment says contains large amounts of asbestos fibers Judge Miles Lord told Re- serve's attorney Edward Fride cajoling thathe had hoped that by cajoling Reserve and working with them and begging them and doing whatever what was necessary I would get Reserve to start working on an land disposa"l systems he continued you apparently are reluctant to put to paper and make the move toward trying to abate what I consider to be a very substantial public health menace based on the evidence tends that large amounts of jasbestos fibrers enter the air in Silver Bay from Reserve's smoke stacks endangering the 3,272 residents of the company built community Studies of asbestos workers have shown that the fibers can be deadly when inhaled in large amounts over a period of years Asbestos workers have un- high usually cancer of the death lungs rates from and gastro- intestinal tract The hazards if any of con suming asbestos are not pre- cisely known although several Government witnesses have testified on the basis of pre- liminary studies that consump tion could well be as deadly as inhalation Reserve which mines an ore called taconite from which it that I have heard up to extracts iron and concentrates point it into pellets for steel produc- tion employs about 3,200 per- Health Concern Cited sons in northern Minnesota Unless some dramatic new company produces 11 mil- testimony comes into the reclion ord in this case the judge reclion tons of year which pellets taconite a accounts for about continued the company will 15 per cent of the nation's _ required to switch to an on steel production page land disposal system In a . ing He added that he was stat submitted memorandum by Mr. Fride in ing this now because the case still has three months to go response to the judge's ment Reserve said that statetesti- and at the end of this case mony on health and other liabil- am still as concerned about ity issues was not yet complete the public health as I am now and that the company should I will consider closing the not be compelled to act on the plant immediately basis of a hypothetical set of The company dumps 67,000 facts tons of into the rocky waste lake's pristine a day waters Noting specifically ordered study by that a medical a policy it has practiced for scientists at the Mayo Clinic _ 18 years and University of Minnesota ' lake's Many communities along the was not yet finished Mr. Fride _ lake's extensive shores includ- said it was premature to act in ing the City of Duluth use the the absence of a firm conclu- discharge - extremely pure unfiltered lake sion that Reserve's , water for drinking purposes had any public health signifi led - Last August Federal officials cance led by the Environmental Pro- The added that un- attorney . tection Agency took Reserve til a final ruling was made on " to the United States District health and other liability issues Court in Minneapolis to try to it would be impossible to de- put end to the lake dis sign an land disposal plan posal system because there was not suffi- The Government in a case cient information on which to regarded as classic in the field base design standards Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission