Document ZOVE4qzMo8VOD3V9k0LZoEZL

FILE NAME: New York State & NY Times (NY) DATE: 1973 Aug 8 DOC#: NY055 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT Article - Iron Ore Company vs. The Changing Times-U.S. Court Will Decide on Right to Pollute By JANE E. BRODYSpecial to The New York Times New York Times (1857-Currentfile); Aug 8,1973; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2002) pg.74 Iron Ore Company vs. the Changing Times: U.S. Court W ill Decide on Right to Pollute By M I E. BRODY land disposal is economically unfeasible and has proposed in SILVER BAY, Minn., Aug 7 stead that the talUngi be -- fa UH7, after extensive pub dum ped with chemicals, car lic healings, Minnesota's envi- ried some distance offshore and romneotal watchdogs gave the dumped Into an underwater Reserve Mining Company per valley in tbe lake. mission to use th e pristine wa ters o f Lake Superior as a Reserve deliberately located its plant along a mile o r so of dumping ground for thousands j o f tons of rocky w aste each X * a quarter-century Jeter, new, poUxtioa-minded officials w ho w ant to keep this lake Lake Superior shore so that i t could u&e th e lake n o t just an an industrial sew er but also as th e source of the 453 mil lion gallons of w ater needed each day to process taconite. Reserve mines taconite, one one of the purest In th e world, are trying to end the practice condoned by their predeces sors. The Governm e n t's action against Reserve has now gone to trial in United States District C ourt in Minneapolis in w hat of the world's hardest rocks, a t Babbitt, Minn., 47 mites northw est of here. Reserve's railroad, built especially to not sto w up as an o bvlouhau! th e rock, brings i t to cancer risk until 20 to 30 yea n Silver Bay. after tbe first exposure. (Re Taconite became of interest umeSKureau S"*5?.pwc5pu" la regarded as a classic case in the annals of pollution. Reserve had requested the dumping permit in the first place because It wasted to build a hugs plant along the lake's shore here to extract iron from a v e h u t u n dumping I t . 1-'S .l c t? L ttu r,j P g ? taiUliinitgMs fMorr 11 77 y e a n ). Since tthh,iw,orheendethpeossittsa ten_se_a_o_rae_cde-driecphl_e_itr_ioo_nn causes of m ost c a n ce n are un* known, some experts fear tha a f t err ,w otrld W" "ar "H* ^Ir a i 0o1re9 E I S S E L jSk. uS IL " * ! ! h in condensed, readily i h iP J Z J S S i Me form. Taconite contains a hard rock called taconite. And Minnesotans -- politicians, conservationists ana onfintry citizens alike--were only too happy to give the new industry every possible opportunity to revive tbe state's wee-prosper ous Mesabi Iron Range. SE T " Meanwhile, nkv the m k to u more evidence m " scattered thrroouugghh th e rock in bere in S tiv e / Ic particles. Oedo^sts y that the iron 016 potiti were formed by of the rock, .re wTM.5ltr6iwt >ffca5.,le,av^in*^pogoiwt*Iroonf irforonmbethaicnod-, on the asbestosnjtef rnan ccmdenses into a few Other H ants Begun 'Wefiel It Win b. tm & 2 L %]EE*T, Reserve now employs 3,200 harmles* Jwt like eve^tW ni?!S!?, million, of yean to persons in northera Minnesota, el that's come up.- rentta3ac^ j M-milllon Silver an d each year i t produces U th e village's sun-tanned Mayor, million toes of iron-rich taco- Frank K. Scheming. The ashes- s ite peQ tts th at in t i n t account toe sc a re he explained, w as fo r about 15 p er cent o f tire preceded tty unsubstantiated r nation's steel production. Re ports of mercury, arsenic, lead, serve's success spawned five c o p p e r^ a iro o s t any chemical o th e r taconite plants th a t col there is"--a s contam inants of lectively have made northeast th e tailings th a t w ere purport ern Minnesota en economically edly polluting th e lake. viable area, fat addition to pro viding the nation with much- A Gnawing Concern needed iron. Mr. Scheuring added that in Five years ago, state and the week thfe asbestos report Federal officials decided th a t it came out, Silver Bay merchants w as time f*or R~ eserve to stop> sold only one-half gallon u< dumping ha taconite w aste -- bottled water-- "and th at was 67,000 tons etc h day--Into th e to a lady who used it in her lake whose waters freshen the steam iron." ' o th er G reat Lakes. W hile residents of Silver Bay Scientists a t th e Federal En and other com m unities continue vironmental Protection Agency to drink Lake Superior water, have reportedly spent several som e in defiance and some in m illion dollars la an effort to disbelief (`T ve drunk i t for 17 prove th at Reserve's taconite years now and nothing's hap* w astes -- called tailings -- are pened to me yet," a" Duluth polluting the lake in violation secretary re m ainnced.)., th e ,,g.n..a..w. - o f water quality standards. ing concern about asbestos h u Early tm s summer, Govern* m eat studies took a new and frightening turn. Large quanti ties of asbestos fibers were found in toe drinking w ater of the city of Duluth and other communities that use Lake Su perior water. Tim Government contends th a t Reserve's tail ings are tbe source of the fibers. Reserve maintains that if there were asbestos fibers is the lake, they come not from th e tailings but from feeder stream s and leaching of the Canadian shoreline. Inhalation of asbestos fibers is known to cease cancer of the lungs and the gastrointestinal trac t, and aftbouigh there is as yet no known hazard associated w ith drinking asbestos, an nouncement of toe finding of emerged in the local gallows humor: "A Two Harbors man died, and when they tried to crem ate Mm, he wouldn't bom ;" "M y goto, I p u t th a t w ater in my drink. Oh wel"l* t'*o e a`lco`hol* in kill me anyhow." The M ayor o f Duluth, Ben Boo, says th at citizens of his city--toe metropolitan hub and economic center o f tbe iron range, h a w adopted a some w hat different attitude. "It doesn't m atter whether tbe tailings are proven harmful or not, we lust w ant them to stop th e dumping," h e said. The ma yor pointed to a. recent poll that showed 67 per cent of the state residents questioned to be against the dumping, with more opposition th e farther from t o r Bay they live. asbestos in municipal water Ftitratkm Manned applies resulted in t momen Mr. Boo said th a t Duluth had tary panic and a temporary up- always been proud of the fact s~u m` i in Diuluth's consumption th at it could drink to e "raw" of bottled a w ater from the lake, but now Concern Spreads The finding also raised press* ing questions about toe asbestos content of w ater supplies throughout the country, in the Southwest, most municipal wa te r supplies are carried through asbestos pipe; in m any North* mm communities, asbestos-con* tainlng rock is used to sand roadways In winter, w ith as bestos fibers possibly contam inating streams and reservoirs. The EJPA is now trying to figure out how it can test the drinking w ater of communities during the next year to determine how wide spread the potentially harmful fibers are. At the same time, scientists a t Mount Sinai Med* be is planning to Install a fil tration system to remove min eral fibers. While Mayor Boo of Duluth says I t 's time for Reserve to find a better place to dump" (and be thinks the Government should help the company do it since it allowed the current procedure in th e first place), M.a..yor S" c'heur`ing o`f "Si*lver "Bay is not happy about the pros pect of Reserve's dumping toe tailin'g9*s o' n. land-, a s do toe other taconite plants. The village of Sliver Bay, as one of 11 interveners In tlm case on Reserve's behalf, main tains that an oo-iand tailings jtond would have to be placed the hills above tite town, de stroying needed recreational i w i CvHtar to New York are-area aad creating an air poilu- working around th e clock in an tfon problem. It would also pre- ttem pt to learn whether the sent the constant threat that consumption of microscopic as-:the dam holding back the tailbestos r a w s is Indeed a health tags would break and bury th e hazard. town under an avalanche of Asbestos, when is Is inhai6dt .cruihed rock. Renroduced 'ms a time-bomb effect--it does' Reserve has argued that on- with nermission of the coDvriaht owner. Bay plant here, a visitor was shown how tbe rock is first crushed into pebbles and then mixed w ith water and ground into loose mud containing flour sized particles. The mud then passes over a series of magnet ic extractors that separate tbe magnetic iron (magnetite) from the rest of the rock's minerals. The magnetic mud is dried, rolled Into marble-sized pellets and halted a t 2400 degrees Fahrenheit to change the mag netite to hematite, the Iron oxide m ost commonly found in iron ore. The resulting taconite pellets contain 60 to 65 per re s t iron, and can be used to. produce twice aa much ] * * a s toe old iron ore co particles, he said, form a I"density current" heavier than W aste Ratta 2 to 1 a te r and settle to toe lake W hat is left afte r the magne-. ittom, which has risen from a tite is extracted from tl___ 0-foot to 8 50-foot depth as are the tailings, a combinal result of accum ulated tail- 1o' t w ater and m in e ra l; ** of various sizes. For e\ of taconite pellets produc two tons of tailings m ult Nosek directs a 32-foot ' launch, the Alma, that serve usee to study the ef fects of the tailings on toe the Reserve plant, tin lyrical and btobgical propertail 3 a re carried like tw< o f toe tote. Thus tar, Mr. r rivers down huge sluice tasek said be has found no ways into Lake Superior. J< . of an<y consequence, Nosek, a research b io lo g ist. ithough some local residents Reserve, explained th at about sport that the green areas half to* tailings--the ' long the shore ere greener now pebbles--a re deposited in the early days of Re shore, w hich Is now a tallii 's operation. delta tiiat extends some 2, Untfl June the case against feet from th e original shore-) leserve was based on such blo- line of the lake. The rest ' ` leal measures as the par- tid e count of the w ater and the Dr. Irving S elikoffs labora- >f the present case, i t is clear contention ttiat the tailings en- twy Mount Sinai is one place hat it will have little effect coum gal th e grow th of u u fa v h*t F i P 'r t y Identify u b e s- m the allegiance of Silver Bay trea residents to the Reserve dining Company. Through the rears, Reserve has been MwTrhemfiMndiainIgt ,o.f asbestos, how In identifying asbestos, Mount enevolent employer operating 2S ib u i researchers explain, first ` company town without the m ore complicated, u well ( j , t e s m rle--ga*ttve - -c--o--n-n--o-t--atio*ns that m ore urgent. A mai dectron microscope must show tally acca ' ' has been that few tories fiber w ith a layered structure ndeed, it now appears that have the equipment or the ex- ihartcteristic of am osite- be Government,and particularly he Environmental Protection SS S ilw l - beec dubbed opposed to other, presumably _r_o_n tb_e__a_m_ point Iby point m "a"i>no? A <*f #h*a people" fchfleMre. bmocuous mineral fibers. C on-T rough the fiber, which cites h i Henrik Ibsen's play of th at H f f f i r S S ^ ? UC. ? ere *" 5 l - w W a l o f the chemistry Hie, w ritten nearly a century u ^ aIrasJ awJ if the atom i t passes through,, igo, a physician discovers th a t counterclaims bout mineral t com puter analyzes th e X-ray h e locaf baths, th e tow n's fibers found to various places * a k s and enables to e scientist najor source of livelihood, * J a * * "" o identity the chemical cem- xmtain coatam inated w ater any of these fibers are actually nsition the fiber. h it H killing those w ho come aS^ stM ` ' Findings So Far o be refreshed in the supposedy healthful spa Thua fa r, according to in- A s thanks fo r his revelations, formed sources, tbe Mount h e physician is ostracized sa Sinai laboratory b a t found no in enemy o f the people and all amosite asbestos in to e lake hose_ w..h..oj t'r-y- t*o* rema'in "his w ater a t Grand Marais, 50 tien d are sum lariy scorned. miles north o f Silver Bay; an as yet usquantified amount is present in the water supply at Beaver Bay, four miles south of w a te r a t Duluth, 55 miles down Silver Bay, and 20 to 200 times more fibers are present in tbe the shore, than in most other w ater supplies thus far tested. Dr. S elikoffi colleague, Wil liam Nicholson and his assis tants are also analyzing the tissues of Duluth residents who have (tied to see if they ac cum ulated asbestos fibers through tbe years, and Duncan Holiday is studying air sam_ ..j from places, such as the fountain in front of the S t Louis County Court House in downtown Duluth, where evap orating w ater may place asbes- to s 'f*i*b- e--rs in `tvhe air. i The judge in th e case, Miles Lord, baa agreed to hear ar m eats c'harging tbhsa t the smoke-1 stacks a t Reserve's plant are polluting the air w ith asbestos,i and the United Steelworkers of America, which represents the taconite workers, has requested inside-th>plant tests, particu larly of tite crushing operatic, to see if workers may be breathing dangerous amounts of asbestos. of the outcome Further reoroduction Drohibited without Dermission.