News Room
Media Contact
WaterLegacy welcomes media inquiries.
Media Contact: Paula Maccabee, Executive Director and Counsel
Phone (office): 651-646-8890
Phone (cell): 651-775-7128
Email: paula@waterlegacy.org
WaterLegacy in the News
Yet another delay in enforcing sulfate limits on wild rice waters
AGATE Magazine | January 3, 2026
“Advocates say now would be a good time to push U.S. Steel to comply with its permit, following its June sale to Nippon Steel . . . For [Mike] Maleska and others who have been following this issue, any standard will be an exercise in futility if not enforced. In that regard, the MPCA’s track record to date offers cold comfort.”
MEDIA RELEASE: Minnesotans Rally in Duluth to Tell Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to “Stay the Course” and Require U.S. Steel Keetac Sulfate Limits
WaterLegacy | December 8, 2025
“On Wednesday, December 10, Minnesotans will gather outside the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) Duluth office to support the agency’s draft decisions limiting U.S. Steel’s Keetac discharge to comply with the wild rice sulfate standard and denying U.S. Steel a variance that would delay compliance with sulfate pollution limits. They will ask MPCA to “stay the course” and protect water, wild rice, fish, and human health.
The rally will begin at 12:00 noon in the parking lot (harbor side) of the MPCA office in the Paulucci Building in Canal Park. Speakers will include State Senator Jen McEwen; retired aquatic ecologist Janet Keough; Fond du Lac Band Elder Ricky DeFoe; and retired miner and union leader Mike Maleska.”
Reflections from Minnesota’s manoomin basket
University of Minnesota Extension | November 19, 2025
“WaterLegacy, a Duluth-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting Minnesota’s waters, says environmental changes and proposed development are of great concern to communities that depend on the area’s wild rice waters. In response, the organization partnered with the University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP). Connecting the regional leaders with University resources, RSDP supported WaterLegacy in developing a one-of-a-kind tribute to a landscape as vital as it is irreplaceable. “
COMMUNITY VOICES: Let’s scrutinize NewRange Copper Nickel’s new mining plans
Commentary for MinnPost | September 29, 2025
“Let’s not be fooled again. PolyMet’s former plan for tailings storage was cheap, dirty and unreliable. New plans must be scrutinized.
Whatever PolyMet proposes, state regulators must impose limits on existing LTV tailings pollution and financial assurance requirements on PolyMet/Glencore/NewRange to cover all LTV tailings basin costs. Minnesotans deserve protection from LTV and PolyMet/NewRange contamination and catastrophe.”
—Paula Maccabee, Executive Director & Counsel, WaterLegacy
Debate over protecting Minnesota’s wild rice from sulfate pollution intensifies on Iron Range
MPR News | September 12, 2025
““I think this is a milestone, that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is going to act consistent with the science and the law,” said Paula Maccabee with the environmental group WaterLegacy, which has pushed for enforcement of the sulfate standard for the past 15 years.
Maccabee doesn’t dispute that treating sulfate is expensive. But she argues U.S. Steel can afford it. The company was recently purchased by Japan-based Nippon Steel, which as part of the acquisition agreed to pump $11 billion into upgrading U.S. Steel facilities.
“So from our perspective, there’s an opportunity to have a real, major win for Minnesota. Japanese investors build new infrastructure and hire workers to build it and operate it. We get cleaner water. We get healthier wild rice.””
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