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
Developments coming soon for NewRange
The Timberjay | July 2, 2025
“[WaterLegacy Executive Director and Counsel Paula Maccabee] added that it will likely be up to Minnesotans to determine whether the process moving forward has substance to it. “There is no federal safety net any longer. That means it will be up to us to protect what we have here in Minnesota. I think the real question is whether state regulators will adhere to the science or whether they will let the federal pressure from power and money hold sway.””
Supreme Court denies U.S. Steel’s request for review of sulfate ruling
The Timberjay | July 2, 2025
“While environmental groups saw the ruling as a victory, the reality is that the Keetac plant has continued to violate its sulfate standard since requesting a looser rule more than a decade ago. According to Paula Maccabee, head legal counsel for Duluth-based Water Legacy, the plant’s discharge has averaged about 34 mg/l of sulfate in recent years. “If you apply the real standard, they are violating the rule. But there has not been any enforcement action because this has been hanging out there,” Maccabee said.”
Environmental group sues over tailings basin expansion
Duluth News Tribune | June 30, 2025
“In a June 16 lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Northshore Mining Co., WaterLegacy alleged that Northshore, which is owned by Cleveland-Cliffs, violated the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act by allowing construction before the project’s environmental impact statement process was complete.”
“WaterLegacy also included a June 10 drone photo that shows considerable construction and extensions had already been made on the basin’s north dam wall compared to a satellite image taken five years earlier.”
Counterpoint: No, murder and attempted murder are not ‘populist’ violence
Commentary for the Minnesota Star Tribune | June 28, 2025
“The inaccurate labeling of the murder of [Speaker Emerita] Melissa and Mark Hortman and attempted murder of [State Senator] John and Yvette Hoffman as “violent populism” is just wrong. The correct word for violence against these legislators and their loved ones is “terrorism.” It is the extreme and unlawful use of violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims.
We will not accept it. We, the people, must stand together against murder and terrorism.”
Sulfate regulations: MPCA shouldn’t let politics loosen rules that keep our waters safe for wild rice
The Timberjay | May 8, 2025
“There is justified public skepticism over the specifics and the timing of a proposal by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to create what is known as a multi-discharger variance, or MDV, in order to streamline the process for exempting companies from the state’s sulfate limit for wild rice waters. […] There will be opportunities for public comment on this proposal and residents of the North Country who care about clean water should be paying attention and speaking out.”
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