Mile Post 7 tailings dams are Class 1 hazard level dams located directly above the cities of Beaver Bay and Silver Bay and less than three miles from Lake Superior.

WaterLegacy appealed DNR’s denial of a Mile Post 7 EIS in April 2024 on the grounds that the Mile Post 7 tailings basin expansion––using unstable upstream dam design––had the potential to harm human life, health, and the environment by increasing the likelihood and severity of catastrophic tailings dam failure.

The Court of Appeals summarized Monday’s Mile Post 7 decision: “In this certiorari appeal, relator [WaterLegacy] challenges an agency determination that a proposed project at a taconite tailings basin does not require an environmental impact statement (EIS). Because the determination that an EIS was not required was based on legal error and was arbitrary and capricious, we reverse and remand to the agency for a new EIS determination.”

WaterLegacy Executive Director Paula Maccabee spoke with Joe Friedrichs from Paddle and Portage about the news, as well as other environmental issues and the regulatory industry in the revisited era of Trump, as well as the Walz administration in Minnesota.

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