Sulfide Mining Presentation by Paula Maccabee

Paula Maccabee, WaterLegacy’s Advocacy Director and Counsel, will speak about Minnesota’s first proposed copper-nickel mine, the PolyMet sulfide mine project and its threats to environmental justice, human health, and our climate. WaterLegacy is an award-winning Minnesota non-profit organization formed to protect Minnesota’s fresh water resources and the communities that rely on them. Paula recently received the Minnesota Public Health Association’s Environmental Health Leadership Award for work preventing toxic pollution. Paula will describe WaterLegacy’s work to prevent sulfide mining pollution in the Lake Superior Basin and to protect natural stands of wild rice from sulfate pollution. She will talk about the potential effects of the proposed PolyMet sulfide mine on water pollution, mercury contamination of fish, destruction of wetlands and impairment of wild rice and how these effects would disproportionately affect Ojibwe tribes and low income families who rely on fishing, hunting and gathering for subsistence. Paula will also explain how the proposed PolyMet mine would result in the release of huge volumes of greenhouse gases and destroy wetlands that sequester carbon. She will encourage listeners to become more informed and involved with protecting clean water to care for our planet, provide environmental justice to our communities and ensure a sustainable future for our next generation.