Minnesota Court of Appeals rules Northshore Mining Co. must keep asbestos levels down in Silver Bay, Minnesota
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled that the Northshore Mining Co. must continue to keep the level of asbestos fibers in the air at its Silver Bay processing plant at or below the level of asbestos fibers found in the air in St. Paul. Northshore Mining operates a taconite production facility in Silver Bay, Minnesota, which operation results in the release of asbestos fibers. Northshore Mining had appealed to Minnesota’s courts when the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency refused to eliminate the “control-city standard” in the company’s air pollution permit, although Northshore Mining argued that the standard is obsolete. That standard was first imposed by the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1975 to protect people near the taconite-processing plant from inhaling asbestos fibers, which have been linked to respiratory illnesses including lung cancer and mesothelioma.
The Minnesota court rejected Northshore Mining’s suggestion that the company’s proposed elimination of the 30-year-old standard was nothing more than a technicality that could be changed by a simple “clarification” of terms under the applicable administrative rules. Rather, ruled the court, the current safety standard is a significant one, not obsolete, that cannot be changed without following the rigorous process outlined in the administrative rules applicable to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for such alterations of policy.
Source: Northshore Min. Co. v. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 2008 WL 2103550 (Minn.App. 2008) (unpublished decision).
