MPR’s Marlena Benzie-Lourey reports on a forum to discuss solutions in reducing and eventually phasing out mercury in Lake Superior basin. The forum is made up of industry representatives and environmentalists from the U.S. and Canada.
MPR’s Marlena Benzie-Lourey reports on a forum to discuss solutions in reducing and eventually phasing out mercury in Lake Superior basin. The forum is made up of industry representatives and environmentalists from the U.S. and Canada.
MARLENA BENZIE-LOUREY: The binational forum, which is made up of industry representatives and environmentalists from the US and Canada, recently announced a major plan to phase out and eventually eliminate mercury in the Lake Superior basin. Mercury causes developmental and nervous system problems in children born to mothers who eat contaminated fish. Gayle Coyer, an environmentalist with the Lake Superior Alliance, says because the forum uses consensus decision-making, in which all members must agree, a single person can stall the process.
GAYLE COYER: The forum had been working on making recommendations to the government about reductions in mercury. And one person was effectively able to block a mercury recommendation for eight months. And so one of our concerns was that there had to be a change in how the forum made its decisions and made recommendations to the government or we would never be getting anywhere.
MARLENA BENZIE-LOUREY: Environmentalists say they'll pull out of the forum if the decision-making process isn't sped up. Coyer says she also thinks the governments have lost their commitment to put the forum's recommendations into law. But the forum's us co-chair, Kurt Soderberg, who runs the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District in Duluth, says he's optimistic the forum recommendations will be met.
KURT SODERBERG: This was clearly a consensus recommendation from the forum. And that includes people from the environmental community, and the industrial community, and municipalities, and academics. So we on the forum, I think, are taking a united front that this is a goal. We believe it to be achievable with a lot of work. And I think we're going to hold them accountable to make sure that the timelines are met. And we're going to be there trying to help to implement the goals.
MARLENA BENZIE-LOUREY: Soderberg says he hopes the environmentalists' concerns will be addressed at a special meeting during this week's sessions. For the FM news station, I'm Marlena Benzie-Lourey.
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