Welcome
About Us
WaterLegacy is an award-winning nonprofit founded to protect Minnesota’s clean waters and the communities that rely on them, particularly from the threat of sulfide mining pollution in the Lake Superior and Boundary Waters watersheds.
Take Action
Learn from the Brazil Tailings Dam Tragedy – Act Today to Protect Minnesota
The Vale corporation mine tailings dam disaster in Brazil is another example of the terrible danger posed by the failure of mine tailings waste dams. Now there are 157 people confirmed dead in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with 182 people still missing.
This past fall, Minnesota’s DNR approved PolyMet’s permit for a 252-foot tall earthen dam to contain its copper-nickel tailings. Ask Governor Walz and new DNR Commissioner Strommen to suspend PolyMet dam permits and examine safer tailings waste alternatives.
What We Do - Issue Campaigns
WaterLegacy in the News
Environmental group seeks EPA documents on Minnesota Mine, MPR News, February 19, 2019
“WaterLegacy attorney Paula Maccabee has said documents she obtained through an open records request showed regional EPA staffers said last fall they had ‘substantial questions’ about the project, before the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued final water and air permits for the mine in December. Maccabee said the EPA never filed formal comments about the project, even though they had expressed a desire to do so.”