SF 1382

Introduction - 94th Legislature (2025 - 2026)

Posted on 02/14/2025 10:43 a.m.

A bill for an act
relating to natural resources; requiring certain determinations before conducting
environmental review and issuing permits relating to proposed nonferrous sulfide
ore projects; amending Minnesota Statutes 2024, sections 93.001; 115.03,
subdivision 1; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 93.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 93.001, is amended to read:

93.001 POLICY FOR MINERAL DEVELOPMENT.

It is the policy of the state to provide for the diversification of the state's mineral economy
through long-term support of mineral exploration, evaluation, environmental research,
development, production, and commercialization new text begin , consistent with the state policy to protect
human health, clean air, clean water, and other natural resources of the state new text end .

Sec. 2.

new text begin [93.2501] MORATORIUM ON CONDUCTING ENVIRONMENTAL
REVIEW AND ISSUING PERMITS RELATING TO PROPOSED NONFERROUS
SULFIDE ORE PROJECTS.
new text end

new text begin Subdivision 1. new text end

new text begin Scope. new text end

new text begin This section applies to conducting environmental review and
issuing permits relating to proposed nonferrous sulfide ore projects under this chapter or
other chapters administered by the commissioner of natural resources or the commissioner
of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. This section does not apply to permits for or
conducting environmental review relating to mining iron ore.
new text end

new text begin Subd. 2. new text end

new text begin Definitions. new text end

new text begin (a) The terms used in this section have the meanings given.
new text end

new text begin (b) "Nonferrous sulfide ore" means a metallic mineral from which iron is not the
predominant metal extracted, including but not limited to copper, nickel, platinum, palladium,
gold, silver, cobalt, chromium, zinc, lead, bismuth, tin, tungsten, tantalum, or niobium.
new text end

new text begin (c) "Similar environment" means a location:
new text end

new text begin (1) with similar average annual precipitation and average monthly temperatures; and
new text end

new text begin (2) in which the proximity of surface water and groundwater to mining operations is
similar to the proximity of surface water and groundwater to the Minnesota site or sites
where the proposed nonferrous sulfide ore project would be sited.
new text end

new text begin Subd. 3. new text end

new text begin Moratorium. new text end

new text begin (a) The commissioner and the commissioner of the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency must not conduct environmental review and must not issue permits
relating to proposed nonferrous sulfide ore projects unless the commissioner and the
commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency both determine, based on
published, peer-reviewed scientific information and public records, that a mine for nonferrous
sulfide ore has operated commercially for at least ten years and has been closed for at least
ten years without resulting in a release of a hazardous substance, hazardous waste, or
pollutant or contaminant as defined under section 115B.02. The mine must have operated
in the United States in a similar environment and must have used reclamation techniques
substantially similar to those proposed by the nonferrous sulfide ore project. The applicant
for a proposed nonferrous sulfide ore project bears the burden of proof under this section
to demonstrate each of the conditions necessary for a determination that environmental
review may be conducted or a permit may be issued.
new text end

new text begin (b) The commissioner and the commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
must publish notice of a proposed determination under paragraph (a) and allow public
comment before making a preliminary decision to conduct environmental review or grant
or deny any application for a permit relating to proposed nonferrous sulfide ore projects. If
probative evidence is submitted to the commissioner or the commissioner of the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency during the public comment period that is contrary to the
commissioners' proposed determination, the commissioners must order a contested case
hearing under chapter 14 and must base the final decision for conducting environmental
review or proceeding with the permitting process on the evidentiary record developed in
the hearing.
new text end

new text begin Subd. 4. new text end

new text begin Renewing and amending permits. new text end

new text begin (a) For any permit issued relating to a
nonferrous sulfide ore mining project under this chapter or other chapters administered by
the commissioner or the commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the
permittee must apply for a reissuance of the permit every ten years, or sooner if the terms
of the permit include an accelerated schedule.
new text end

new text begin (b) A person or entity seeking renewal, reissuance, modification, or reinstatement of or
an expansion or extension of activities under a permit under this chapter or other chapters
administered by the commissioner or the commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency related to mining nonferrous sulfide ore projects must submit to the commissioner
or the commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency a new, modified, or amended
application for the permit. The application is subject to subdivision 3 and is considered a
substantial change to the permit for purposes of the notice requirement in section 93.481,
subdivision 3, paragraph (b).
new text end

Sec. 3.

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 115.03, subdivision 1, is amended to read:

Subdivision 1.

Generally.

(a) The commissioner is given and charged with the following
powers and duties:

(1) to administer and enforce all laws relating to the pollution of any of the waters of
the state;

(2) to investigate the extent, character, and effect of the pollution of the waters of this
state and to gather data and information necessary or desirable in the administration or
enforcement of pollution laws, and to make such classification of the waters of the state as
it may deem advisable;

(3) to establish and alter such reasonable pollution standards for any waters of the state
in relation to the public use to which they are or may be put as it shall deem necessary for
the purposes of this chapter and, with respect to the pollution of waters of the state, chapter
116;

(4) to encourage waste treatment, including advanced waste treatment, instead of stream
low-flow augmentation for dilution purposes to control and prevent pollution;

(5) to adopt, issue, reissue, modify, deny, revoke, reopen, enter into, or enforce reasonable
orders, permits, variances, standards, rules, schedules of compliance, and stipulation
agreements, under such conditions as it may prescribe, in order to prevent, control or abate
water pollution, or for the installation or operation of disposal systems or parts thereof, or
for other equipment and facilities:

(i) requiring the discontinuance of the discharge of sewage, industrial waste or other
wastes into any waters of the state resulting in pollution in excess of the applicable pollution
standard established under this chapter;

(ii) prohibiting or directing the abatement of any discharge of sewage, industrial waste,
or other wastes, into any waters of the state or the deposit thereof or the discharge into any
municipal disposal system where the same is likely to get into any waters of the state in
violation of this chapter and, with respect to the pollution of waters of the state, chapter
116, or standards or rules promulgated or permits issued pursuant thereto, and specifying
the schedule of compliance within which such prohibition or abatement must be
accomplished;

(iii) prohibiting the storage of any liquid or solid substance or other pollutant in a manner
which does not reasonably assure proper retention against entry into any waters of the state
that would be likely to pollute any waters of the state;

(iv) requiring the construction, installation, maintenance, and operation by any person
of any disposal system or any part thereof, or other equipment and facilities, or the
reconstruction, alteration, or enlargement of its existing disposal system or any part thereof,
or the adoption of other remedial measures to prevent, control or abate any discharge or
deposit of sewage, industrial waste or other wastes by any person;

(v) establishing, and from time to time revising, standards of performance for new sources
taking into consideration, among other things, classes, types, sizes, and categories of sources,
processes, pollution control technology, cost of achieving such effluent reduction, and any
nonwater quality environmental impact and energy requirements. Said standards of
performance for new sources shall encompass those standards for the control of the discharge
of pollutants which reflect the greatest degree of effluent reduction which the agency
determines to be achievable through application of the best available demonstrated control
technology, processes, operating methods, or other alternatives, including, where practicable,
a standard permitting no discharge of pollutants. New sources shall encompass buildings,
structures, facilities, or installations from which there is or may be the discharge of pollutants,
the construction of which is commenced after the publication by the agency of proposed
rules prescribing a standard of performance which will be applicable to such source.
Notwithstanding any other provision of the law of this state, any point source the construction
of which is commenced after May 20, 1973, and which is so constructed as to meet all
applicable standards of performance for new sources shall, consistent with and subject to
the provisions of section 306(d) of the Amendments of 1972 to the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act, not be subject to any more stringent standard of performance for new sources
during a ten-year period beginning on the date of completion of such construction or during
the period of depreciation or amortization of such facility for the purposes of section 167
or 169, or both, of the Federal Internal Revenue Code of 1954, whichever period ends first.
Construction shall encompass any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or
equipment, including contractual obligations to purchase such facilities or equipment, at
the premises where such equipment will be used, including preparation work at such
premises;

(vi) establishing and revising pretreatment standards to prevent or abate the discharge
of any pollutant into any publicly owned disposal system, which pollutant interferes with,
passes through, or otherwise is incompatible with such disposal system;

(vii) requiring the owner or operator of any disposal system or any point source to
establish and maintain such records, make such reports, install, use, and maintain such
monitoring equipment or methods, including where appropriate biological monitoring
methods, sample such effluents in accordance with such methods, at such locations, at such
intervals, and in such a manner as the agency shall prescribe, and providing such other
information as the agency may reasonably require;

(viii) notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, and with respect to the pollution
of waters of the state, chapter 116, requiring the achievement of more stringent limitations
than otherwise imposed by effluent limitations in order to meet any applicable water quality
standard by establishing new effluent limitations, based upon section 115.01, subdivision
13, clause (b), including alternative effluent control strategies for any point source or group
of point sources to insure the integrity of water quality classifications, whenever the agency
determines that discharges of pollutants from such point source or sources, with the
application of effluent limitations required to comply with any standard of best available
technology, would interfere with the attainment or maintenance of the water quality
classification in a specific portion of the waters of the state. Prior to establishment of any
such effluent limitation, the agency shall hold a public hearing to determine the relationship
of the economic and social costs of achieving such limitation or limitations, including any
economic or social dislocation in the affected community or communities, to the social and
economic benefits to be obtained and to determine whether or not such effluent limitation
can be implemented with available technology or other alternative control strategies. If a
person affected by such limitation demonstrates at such hearing that, whether or not such
technology or other alternative control strategies are available, there is no reasonable
relationship between the economic and social costs and the benefits to be obtained, such
limitation shall not become effective and shall be adjusted as it applies to such person;

(ix) modifying, in its discretion, any requirement or limitation based upon best available
technology with respect to any point source for which a permit application is filed after July
1, 1977, upon a showing by the owner or operator of such point source satisfactory to the
agency that such modified requirements will represent the maximum use of technology
within the economic capability of the owner or operator and will result in reasonable further
progress toward the elimination of the discharge of pollutants;

(x) requiring that applicants for wastewater discharge permits evaluate in their
applications the potential reuses of the discharged wastewater; and

(xi) when appropriate, requiring parties who enter into a negotiated agreement to settle
an enforcement matter with the agency to reimburse the agency for oversight costs. The
agency may recover oversight costs only if the agency's costs exceed $25,000. If oversight
costs exceed $25,000, the agency may recover all the oversight costs incurred by the agency
that are associated with implementing the negotiated agreement. Oversight costs may include
but are not limited to any costs associated with inspections, sampling, monitoring, modeling,
risk assessment, permit writing, engineering review, economic analysis and review, and
other record or document review. Estimates of anticipated oversight costs must be disclosed
in the negotiated agreement, and estimates must be periodically updated and disclosed to
the parties to the negotiated agreement. The agency's legal and litigation costs are not
recoverable under this clause. In addition to settlement agreements, the commissioner has
discretion as to whether to apply this clause in cases when the agency is using schedules of
compliance to bring a class of regulated parties into compliance;

(6) to require to be submitted and to approve plans and specifications for disposal systems
or point sources, or any part thereof and to inspect the construction thereof for compliance
with the approved plans and specifications thereof;

(7) to prescribe and alter rules, not inconsistent with law, for the conduct of the agency
and other matters within the scope of the powers granted to and imposed upon it by this
chapter and, with respect to pollution of waters of the state, in chapter 116, provided that
every rule affecting any other department or agency of the state or any person other than a
member or employee of the agency shall be filed with the secretary of state;

(8) to conduct such investigations, issue such notices, public and otherwise, deleted text begin and deleted text end hold
such hearings new text begin and make such determinations new text end as are necessary or which deleted text begin it deleted text end new text begin the commissioner new text end
may deem advisable for the discharge of deleted text begin its deleted text end duties under this chapter new text begin and section 93.2501 new text end
and, with respect to the pollution of waters of the state, under chapter 116, including, but
not limited to, the issuance of permits, and to authorize any member, employee, or agent
appointed by it to conduct such investigations or, issue such notices and hold such hearings;

(9) for the purpose of water pollution control planning by the state and pursuant to the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, to establish and revise planning areas,
adopt plans and programs and continuing planning processes, including, but not limited to,
basin plans and areawide waste treatment management plans, and to provide for the
implementation of any such plans by means of, including, but not limited to, standards, plan
elements, procedures for revision, intergovernmental cooperation, residual treatment process
waste controls, and needs inventory and ranking for construction of disposal systems;

(10) to train water pollution control personnel and charge training fees as are necessary
to cover the agency's costs. All such fees received must be paid into the state treasury and
credited to the Pollution Control Agency training account;

(11) to provide chloride reduction training and charge training fees as necessary to cover
the agency's costs not to exceed $350. All training fees received must be paid into the state
treasury and credited to the Pollution Control Agency training account;

(12) to impose as additional conditions in permits to publicly owned disposal systems
appropriate measures to insure compliance by industrial and other users with any pretreatment
standard, including, but not limited to, those related to toxic pollutants, and any system of
user charges ratably as is hereby required under state law or said Federal Water Pollution
Control Act, as amended, or any regulations or guidelines promulgated thereunder;

(13) to set a period not to exceed five years for the duration of any national pollutant
discharge elimination system permit or not to exceed ten years for any permit issued as a
state disposal system permit only;

(14) to require each governmental subdivision identified as a permittee for a wastewater
treatment works to evaluate in every odd-numbered year the condition of its existing system
and identify future capital improvements that will be needed to attain or maintain compliance
with a national pollutant discharge elimination system or state disposal system permit;

(15) to train subsurface sewage treatment system personnel, including persons who
design, construct, install, inspect, service, and operate subsurface sewage treatment systems,
and charge fees as necessary to pay the agency's costs. All fees received must be paid into
the state treasury and credited to the agency's training account. Money in the account is
appropriated to the agency to pay expenses related to training; and

(16) to encourage practices that enable the recovery and use of waste heat from
wastewater treatment operations.

(b) The information required in paragraph (a), clause (14), must be submitted in every
odd-numbered year to the commissioner on a form provided by the commissioner. The
commissioner shall provide technical assistance if requested by the governmental subdivision.

(c) The powers and duties given the agency in this subdivision also apply to permits
issued under chapter 114C.

Sec. 4. new text begin EFFECTIVE DATE.
new text end

new text begin Sections 1 to 3 are effective the day following final enactment and apply to proposed
nonferrous sulfide ore projects that have begun, but not completed, environmental review
on or before that date and to permits granted, renewed, modified, or amended on or after
that date relating to proposed nonferrous sulfide ore projects under Minnesota Statutes,
chapter 93, or other chapters administered by the commissioner of natural resources or the
commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
new text end