The air in Silver Bay must continue to meet a three-decade-old “control city” monitoring standard comparing it with the air quality in St. Paul. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) does not have to complete an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) before it processes Northshore Mining Company’s August 2008 application to remove that standard from Northshore’s air emissions permit after an April 12 dismissal by the state Court of Appeals of an appeal filed by the MPCA.

An outcome of the famous Reserve Mining case in the 1970s was an injunction that established a control city standard for air emissions at the Silver Bay taconite processing plant, with St. Paul as the control. The federal courts in 2007 and 2008 determined that injunction no longer had any force or effect. When it applied in August 2008 to have its air emissions permit reissued, Northshore Mining, the current owner of the plant, asked to have the monitoring provisions created from the federal court injunction removed from its permit when reissued. In November 2008, the MPCA determined it must complete an EAW before it could process Northshore Mining’s amendment application. Northshore Mining challenged MPCA’s EAW decision in Lake County District Court the following month.

In January 2010, Judge Kenneth Sandvik ruled in favor of the company and the MPCA appealed his ruling in March. The Court of Appeals dismissed MPCA’s appeal, however, because MPCA did not complete all the steps necessary during the appeal period to give the Court jurisdiction to hear the appeal. The MPCA has since stated it will begin to process Northshore Mining’s amendment application. Northshore remains subject to the monitoring standards in the meantime.

The company would like to remove the control city standard from its emissions compliance, arguing it is outdated, has no scientific basis and does not reflect major investments made in emissions controls at the Silver Bay facility. The issue of whether the standards must stay in Northshore Mining’s permit was not before the Lake County District Court.