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
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.””
At Iron Range hearing, miners warn of closures if wild rice rule enforced
Duluth News Tribune | September 4, 2025
“Paula Maccabee, executive director and counsel for WaterLegacy, said: “It’s not old science — it’s repeated science.”
“We’ve heard really difficult stories about boom and bust in the mining industry,” she said, “but that has never been because of the enforcement of pollution standards.””
MEDIA RELEASE: WaterLegacy Withdraws Outdated Petition to Remove Minnesota Authority to Issue Water Permits for Mining
WaterLegacy | August 25, 2025
“WaterLegacy has withdrawn and voluntarily dismissed its July 2, 2015 Petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove Minnesota’s delegated authority under the Clean Water Act to issue surface water pollution permits for mining facilities (Petition). WaterLegacy told the EPA this Friday in a brief letter that its decade-old Petition was outdated and “no longer accurately reflected” current conditions in Minnesota.”
Iron Mining Association of Minnesota hosts community event on MPCA sulfate standards
Northern News Now | August 19, 2025
“While the IMA opposes the standard, Paula Maccabee from Minnesota-based nonprofit, WaterLegacy, says they’re in place for good reason.
“The Administrative Law Judge and Chief Judge determined that it was necessary to keep that standard to comply with the Clean Water Act,” said Maccabee.
She said if the standard isn’t met, it will hurt wild rice production.
“It will weaken the seed production and eventually it decimates it,” said Maccabee. “So an area that was once abundant and could feed wildlife, or a whole family, would have just a few sparse stalks.””
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: "We have a sacred duty to protect water and Manoomin (wild rice)"
Aitkin Independent Age | August 13, 2025
“Talon’s proposed nickel mine would dig thousands of feet into the earth and discharge sulfates into surface water. The mine threatens to pollute water, wild rice and fish with sulfate and other chemicals and reduce water levels in shallow lakes. Pollution and dewatering would first harm lakes and rivers in the region then spread to downstream Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. If these waters are polluted, our fish become too toxic to eat, our wild rice dies and our health will suffer.
This is not just an environmental concern. While we come from different spiritual backgrounds, many of our beliefs share a teaching of reciprocal care. All living beings are part of God’s creation and caring for that creation is a sacred duty.”
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