Asbestos Testing at Silver Bay Processing Plant Upheld by CourtSilver Bay, Minnesota - Under a ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the amount of airborne asbestos fibers at Northshore Mining Co.'s Silver Bay processing plant will still be compared to airborne asbestos fiber levels in St. Paul.
A recent decision by a three-judge panel of the appeals court was in agreement with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The agency has maintained that in order to protect the health of people near the taconite-processing plant, the 34-year-old standard must remain in place.
In 1974, a federal court ruling imposed the standard for the first time and the standard has since been included in operating permits issued by the MPCA to the company. Under the standard, Silver Bay air must be tested for asbestos-like fibers and demonstrate consistently lower levels than St. Paul air samples show.
Because there are no scientific guidelines of what levels of airborne asbestos-like fibers are safe or dangerous for humans the "control city" comparison was developed.
This action comes at a time when state health personnel are trying to figure out why an unusually high number of Iron Range residents have died from mesothelioma, a lung ailment known to be caused by asbestos exposure. Some industry experts say the miners were exposed to fibers in ore dust and others believe that miners were exposed to commercial asbestos used for industrial insulation in the mines.
Various rock formations under the eastern Iron Range contain the fibers. In the 1970's they were under much scrutiny when a Northshore predecessor, Reserve Mining, was ordered to stop dumping taconite tailings in Lake Superior because of potential environmental effects and impact on humans.
Northshore took the issue to the courts even though the MPCA has continued to insist that the comparison to St. Paul be upheld. The standard was defended jointly by The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the PCA.
The court disagreed with the Northshore officials who continued to assert that the standards were not necessary and were in fact outdated and that the iron ore mined and processed by the company does not contain asbestos.
The decision concluded that because "Northshore cannot offer an adequate alternative for the 'control city' standard currently in effect, the standard is not obsolete and it's elimination would require a significant amendment."
Northshore could now petition the Minnesota Supreme Court to hear the case. A Minnesota spokesman for Northshore's parent company, Cleveland Cliffs, Maureen Talarico, indicated that it has not been decided whether additional court action will be pursued.
Talarico said, "This decision in no way affects air quality in Silver Bay," and noted that since the original Reserve case fiber levels at the plant have dramatically declined.
According to PCA records, fiber levels were as high as 307,000 per cubic meter of air in Silver Bay in 1975 and dropped to as low as 16,737 by 1980 which was lower than St. Paul fiber levels during the '80s. But in recent years, even though St. Paul levels dropped to less than 2,000, Silver Bay levels were at 16,000 when testing was resumed by the state.
Although Northshore has been back in compliance for some months since March 2007, it was apparently was out of compliance with the regulation for the majority of time between March 2006 and March 2007, when testing resumed in St. Paul.
A federal judge, in December, also refrained from backing the company on the issue, saying it was not a federal issue and that under the state's pollution permit issued to the company, the standard was acceptable.
The Federal Mine Safety Administration also announced that it raised protective standards for mine workers who may be exposed to asbestos. Northshore was one of only five mines nationwide that has recorded high asbestos levels during a 2001 inspection, the agency confirmed.
