Document zoKkyqGwgEey303axGRwLM2pa

FILE NAME: New York State & NY Times (NY) DATE: 1973 Aug 31 DOC#: NY056 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT Article - Economics is Key in Pollution Suit New ro/t lanes (1857-CurrertJUe); Aug31, 1973, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New YorfcTimes (1851 -: PS 23 ECONOMICS IS KEY IN POLLUTION SPIT Mine's Dumpings in Lake Pit Environmentalists : Against Company I By WUXIAM E. FARRELL 1 s*daittfctK tvV irknB ' MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 28 -- A complex pollution trial under (way in Federal District Court 'here pita the Government, five environmental groups and Wis consin, Michigan and Minnesota against the Reserve Minii Company and a number Chambers ot Commerce and small towns whose economies are Inextricably linked to the company's mining operations. The trial, about to enter its fifth week, is considered by many to be a classic confron tation over a pollution issue. Its origins date to 1868. At that time the Federal Government tried unsuccessful* ly to persuade the company, located at Silver Bay, to atop dumping 67,000 tons of taconite tailings dally into Lake Superi or, something the company has done for 16 years and some-1 thing the Government says causes widespread pollution of a body of water thought to be the largest and purest fresh water lake in the world. The tailings are grains of ore from which magnetic particles of iron have been extracted. In addition, the Government contended that the company's use of the lake as a dumping ground hastened its ecologies decline and violated water quality laws. The Reserve Mining Com* iny is jointly owned by the public Steel Corporation and the Armco steel Corporation. Suit Filed in *72 A Federal suit w as finally brought against Reserve in February. 1972, a t the request of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Agency spokesmen suggested th at the suit had been (relayed because Willi Boyer, chairman of Re* public, was a vice chairman of the Ohio Republican Finance Committee, and C. William Ver ity, head of Armco, was a Re publican fund raiser. I In June of tills year another Issue arose when the E.P.A. Ireleased a report saying that `"high concentration" of potentially injurious asbestos lfibers had been found in the ,western end of Lake Superior, (the source of drinking water for the city of Duluth and the smaller communities of Silver Bay, Beaver Bay and Two Har.bore. The Federal agency said that while there was "no conclusive evidence" th at the lake water was Unfit for consumption "prudence dictates lh at an al ternate source of drinking wa ter be found for very young children," The contention by the Minne* sota Pollution Control Agency and later by a government wit ness at the trial was that the asbestos-type fibers detected in Duluth's water supply could only have come front Reserve's plant at Silver Bay. Attorneys for Reserve said In court that the ootnpany will present "concrete evidence1' that the asbestos fibers are found in a mineral called cure* mlngtonite, a substance the company says enters Lake Superior from numerous streams located on the Cana dian -side of the lake's basin. On-Land Disposal The Government is insisting that the company dispose of Ha waste from ita mining proc ess on land a t Babbitt, Minn., where Reserve mines the taconite th at Is shipped for process ing to Silver Bey 47 miles away. Reserve said that onland disposal was not feasible, s since a revamping of itt a rations to permit such a met od of disposal would cost m< than 9200-miUlon. a sum i company says it cannot aff< In its pre-trial brief, one nearly 800 documents filed the case, Reserve said it wot "establish that Reserve's math of discharge of taconite tallh has no significant adverse fectaon Lake Superior" and it It was "the best avails method for minimizing i potential adverse ecological fecta, Reserve pioneered In the pr ess that frees the iron-bearl particles from the taconite. L process that helped to rejuve- tions, the company said, would result in "severe economic re percussions" in northeast Min nesota and other areas of the state. * One of the questions that has been posed during the trial by United States District Judge Miles Lord is what the effect might be if he ordered the com pany shut down if it ia def initely established th at Re serve's taconite waste is a health hazard. He said it was a m atter he wanted pursued at some point during the trial. --. ... ite the waning Mesabi >ge. The company now One of the significant de velopments in the trial to date has been Judge Lord's ruling that allegations that Reserve is polluting the air -- as well as the water -- by discharging po tentially injurious asbestos fibers would be heard during the trial The eharae, strenuously op posed by Reserve's attorneys, was made by the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the plaintlff-lntervenors in the case. The fund, a nonprofit environmental group composed of scientists, lawyers and educators is based . In E ast Setauket, L. I. in r The fund's motion was also pt Opposed by attorneys for the res IS per cent of the Unit federal Government who said ites iron ore used in t they wanted the question of jn tiy 's blast furnaces. air pollution to be taken up in The company estimates th 6 separate court action, average of 2,933 employ is Studies of asbestos workers this year are receiving have.shown that they had high yroll of 946-mmion. It M to * from cancer of the budget for purchase of rr prion, lungs and stomach- ills ami supplies will totiflr ' Li ! ~ 3.8-million from 550 vendors the state, its state and local ces will amount to 86.5-mil- n, the company says. Any disruption o f ita opera- Oaot/v* u'ari usrih ndrmleoJim n t th o r n m i n ^ t t AUfncir P n rth or ranrrxk irtlrui nrrthlhitflrt UAthfMrt nermlsGMVi