Opinion ID: 1281848
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Impact on Mineral Potential, Timber, Water, Wildlife, Fish, and Land Use

Text: In considering the factors which are to be weighed in determining whether Mile Post 20 is a feasible and prudent alternative, the hearing officer found that Mile Post 7 would not interfere with any potential mineral development, that destruction of timber resources would be comparable whichever site was chosen, and the loss of wildlife habitat at Mile Post 7 would result in a migration to other areas. Only passing reference was made to wildlife without comparing the two sites. The agencies concede that both Mile Post 20 and Mile Post 7 were only fair habitat for wildlife. Although 7 out of 9.7 miles of streams at Mile Post 7 which would be destroyed have been officially designated as trout streams, compared to 5.1 miles of streams at Mile Post 20 which have not been so designated, the uncontradicted evidence indicated that only about 2 miles at Mile Post 7 actually afforded fishing of a quality which was even fair, while the remainder of the streams were described as very poor. The agencies contend that turbidity of downstream waters at Mile Post 7 would adversely affect anadromous fish in the Beaver River. Reserve counters by pointing out that a waterfall at Highway No. 61 prevents lake fish from spawning beyond that point. Some 39 acres of lakes would be lost or affected at Mile Post 7 without any such loss at Mile Post 20. On the other hand, the tailings basin drainage area at Mile Post 7 would be 9.1 square miles, removing 6.9 percent of the watershed, compared to 12.6 square miles at Mile Post 20, removing 36.2 percent of the watershed. The hearing officer concluded that the destruction, impairment, or pollution of water resources would be less at alternative sites than at Mile Post 7. The most troublesome question concerning the impact on natural resources is the matter of land-use planning. The hearing officer found that in this respect Mile Post 7 was the least desirable alternative, assigning as one reason the fact that the operation of the mine would extend in time beyond the physical capacity of the basin, requiring the creation of another disposal site sometime in the future. [7] Of more immediate concern, however, was the opinion of the hearing officer that construction of a basin at Mile Post 7 would be within the so-called North Shore corridor and would be inconsistent with land-use development for that area. He concluded that the proposed development at Mile Post 7 would not simply be an expansion of an existing industrial use but would be the creation of a major new industrial facility. As to Mile Post 20, he found that it would not be incompatible with land-use principles because it has not been committed to any other use, conceding, however, that neither has it been disturbed. What has been described as the North Shore corridor enjoys no official recognition or protection by law or by regulation and is an area of unspecified dimensions. There are, of course, large industrial compounds now located on the shores of Lake Superior at Silver Bay, Two Harbors, and Duluth. Mile Post 7 is only 4 miles from the present taconite processing plant at Silver Bay, which is already an extremely large industrial facility. Mile Post 20, on the other hand, is remotely located from any existing industrial area and enjoys the protection afforded a national forest. Of the land at Mile Post 20, 7,320 acres, or 84 percent, is publicly owned, whereas 4,420 acres, or 45 percent, of Mile Post 7 is publicly owned. The agencies concede that Mile Post 20 would have the highest frequency of visual impact, which is to say it would be more obtrusive aesthetically compared to Mile Post 7, which is of lower visibility. There was testimony on the part of the agencies' own witnesses that because Mile Post 20 would open up an entirely new area it would violate land-use principles. Those principles are set forth in the Midway Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statement prepared by Barton-Aschman Associates for the DNR and the PCA in February 1976 as follows: The following regional land use planning principles appear to be emerging: 1. Encourage the consolidation of manageable regional land use activities. 2. Minimize or eliminate further intrusion of man's activities into the natural resource recreational oriented areas. 3. Eliminate or consolidate conflicting land use activities in the Voyageurs-BWCA and north shore prime recreation/scenic corridors. 4. Minimize the development of resource oriented activity so as to maintain the natural and recreational character of the area. These principles have not been established specifically by public action but tend to be supported by past and emerging public actions. Applied, they would support the consolidation of mineral processing and industrial activities adjacent to existing concentrations. These principles support protection of the major recreational corridors from further encroachment to preserve future options for eliminating conflicting and incompatible utilization. (Italics supplied.) We hold that the finding of the DNR and PCA that [u]se of the Midway site as a tailings basin would not be incompatible with land use principles is unsupported by substantial evidence. Consequently, the conclusion that [f]rom the standpoint of land use planning, Mile Post 7 is the least desirable of all the alternatives cannot be sustained. As we have indicated, Mile Post 20 is located entirely within the Superior National Forest. The purposes for which national forests are established and administered are set forth in 16 U.S.C.A., ง 475:    No national forest shall be established, except to improve and protect the forest within the boundaries, or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States; but it is not the purpose or intent of these provisions, or of said section, to authorize the inclusion therein of lands more valuable for the mineral therein, or for agricultural purposes, than for forest purposes. (Italics supplied.) A supplemental statement of policy and purpose is found in 16 U.S.C.A., ง 528, as follows: It is the policy of the Congress that the national forests are established and shall be administered for outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish purpose.  (Italics supplied.) Whereas Mile Post 7 is in relatively close proximity to the Silver Bay processing plant, Mile Post 20 is some 16 miles removed. Applying the land-use principles to which we have referred, the evidence compels a finding that Mile Post 7 is not, as the hearing officer held, a new industrial development, but rather it is the expansion of an existing industrial use. Clearly the selection of Mile Post 20 does violence to the principle of consolidated land uses. A total of 7,320 acres of land would be removed from public use, requiring the construction of 7,000 feet of roads and 20,000 feet of railroad spurs. Wildlife habitat of 5,326 acres would be destroyed, removing cover for moose, timber wolf, spruce grouse, fisher, and marten, as well as affecting the habitat of bear, mink, muskrat, otter, hare, and woodcock. It is an area of which 20 or 25 percent is covered by hardwoods such as aspen, birch, maple, and oak, and roughly 35 or 40 percent conifers, consisting of balsam, white spruce, jackpine, white pine, and red pine. It has the lowest deforested area of the sites considered. The operation of a tailings basin at Mile Post 20 would have a major noise impact on 3,400 acres, and somewhat less impact on approximately 2,900 acres. Such intrusions are entirely inconsistent with the purposes and policies for which national forests are created and maintained. What Judge Philip Neville said in Izaak Walton League of America v. St. Clair, 353 F.Supp. 698, 714 (D.Minn.1973), where he was construing the Wilderness Act as it applies to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, articulates a philosophy to which we subscribe. It supports land-use principles which minimize further intrusions of man's activities into the natural resources recreational oriented areas    to maintain the natural and recreational character of the area. Judge Neville observed: It is clear that wilderness and mining are incompatible. Wilderness exists because man has not yet intruded upon it. As the United States was settled and frontiers vanished, wilderness disappeared except for inaccessible or otherwise then commercially useless areas. As of today but few true wilderness areas remain. Once penetrated by civilization and man made activities, it cannot be regained for perhaps hundreds of years. The recovery period is meaningless for generations to come. The destruction is irreversible. So with mining, logging off and other activities, they are anathema to all wilderness values. The Superior National Forest has been set aside by Congress to protect the forest for outdoor recreation, wildlife, and other conservation purposes. We have no hesitation in holding that the destruction or removal of 8,680 acres from such a relatively wild area in order to devote it to industrial development is totally incompatible with accepted land-use principles. We are confident the Federal government would adopt a similar view if a land exchange were sought.