I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 668 
To provide for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness 
and interconnected Federal lands and waters, including Voyageurs Na-
tional Park, within the Rainy River Watershed in the State of Minnesota, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 31, 2023 
Ms. MCCOLLUM (for herself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. PHILLIPS, Ms. 
OMAR, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. KILDEE, 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. 
ESHOO, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. KILMER, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. 
CHU, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. BUSH, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. MOORE of Wis-
consin, Mr. CASE, Ms. SLOTKIN, Mr. NADLER, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. 
GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. CARSON, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. 
POCAN, Mr. LEVIN, Ms. STANSBURY, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. MCGOVERN, 
Mr. TONKO, Mr. LIEU, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. COURTNEY, Ms. 
ROSS, and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To provide for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe 
Area Wilderness and interconnected Federal lands and 
waters, including Voyageurs National Park, within the 
Rainy River Watershed in the State of Minnesota, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Boundary Waters Wil-
derness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilder-
ness is a 1,090,000-acre Federal wilderness area, lo-
cated within the Superior National Forest, that was 
originally designated in the Wilderness Act of 1964 
(Public Law 88–577). 
(2) The Forest Service manages the Boundary 
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which includes— 
(A) nearly 2,000 pristine lakes ranging in 
size from 10 acres to 10,000 acres, and more 
than 1,200 miles of canoe routes; 
(B) 1,500 cultural resource sites including 
historic Ojibwe village sites and Native Amer-
ican pictograph panel sites; and 
(C) 150 miles of land and water on the 
international border with the Government of 
Canada. 
(3) In 1978, Congress passed the Boundary 
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act (Public Law 95– 
495) to remove incompatible uses, prohibit mining 
within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness 
and on 220,000 acres of the Superior National For-
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est, and to provide management guidance to protect, 
preserve, and enhance the lakes, waterways, and for-
ested areas of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area 
Wilderness to enhance public enjoyment of the 
unique landscape and wildlife. 
(4) The federally recognized Grand Portage 
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Fond du Lac 
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Bois 
Forte Band of Chippewa retain hunting, fishing, and 
other usufructuary rights throughout the entire 
northeast portion of Minnesota, including the 
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, under the 
1854 Treaty of LaPointe. All Bands have a legal in-
terest in protecting natural resources and the Forest 
Service shares in the Federal trust responsibility to 
maintain treaty resources. 
(5) The Rainy River Watershed lies within the 
Superior National Forest, which contains 20 percent 
of the fresh water supply in the entire National For-
est System. 
(6) The Rainy River Watershed headwaters 
begin in northeastern Minnesota and flow north 
through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilder-
ness and Voyageurs National Park and into Canada 
along the shared international border. These inter-
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national waters are governed by the 1909 Boundary 
Waters Treaty, which states that ‘‘boundary waters 
and the waters flowing across the boundary shall not 
be polluted on either side to the injury of health or 
property on the other’’. 
(7) The waters of the Boundary Waters Canoe 
Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park are 
classified as Outstanding Resource Value Waters 
under Federal and State law, and degradation of 
water quality is prohibited. A risk of mining develop-
ment is acid mine drainage which generally occurs 
when sulfide minerals are exposed to air and water 
creating sulfuric acid, which decreases water pH and 
leaches harmful metals such as copper, zinc, lead, 
cadmium, iron, and nickel. 
(8) Acid mine runoff from sulfide-ore copper 
mining entering groundwater, rivers, streams, and 
lakes harms aquatic life, degrades water quality, and 
results in potential severe environmental impacts. 
(9) A peer-reviewed study of water quality im-
pacts from 14 operating United States copper sul-
fide mines found 100 percent of the mines experi-
enced pipeline spills or accidental releases: 13 mines 
experienced failures of water collection and treat-
ment systems to control contaminated mine seepage 
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