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Exploring the Legacy of Reserve Mining: What Does the Longest Environmental Trial in History Tell Us About the Meaning of American Environmentalism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Thomas R. Huffman
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Extract

In the best-selling book Civil Action, Jonathan Harr depicts an environmental pollution tale of frightening contamination and endless litigation in a small Massachusetts town during the 1970s and 1980s. A quixotic and some-what foolish lawyer pursues two giant and evil corporations through the legal system, seeking justice for his hapless working-class clients. In the end, the solitary lawyer falters when faced with the overwhelming economic and (seemingly underhanded) legal power of the corporations. Justice is not served, if it truly ever is, until the might of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intervenes to force the business interests to admit some wrong and shell out some money.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , July 2000 , pp. 339 - 368
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Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2000

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References

Notes

1. On the “longest environmental trial”: “Reserve Mining Case Finally Concludes,” Minneapolis Tribune, 24 April 1982; “Epic Reserve Mining Case Played Out After 12 Years,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 25 April 1982; “Settlement Ends Mine Dumping Suit,” New York Times, 25 April 1982; McSpadden, Lettie, “The Courts and Environmental Policy,” in Lester, James P., ed., Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence, 2d ed. (Durham, 1995), 242–277Google Scholar; Farber, Daniel A., “Risk Regulation in Perspective: Reserve Mining Revisited,” Environmental Law 21:4 (Summer 1991): 1321–1357.Google Scholar

2. Schaumburg, Frank D., Judgment Reserved: A Landmark Environmental Case (Reston, Va., 1976)Google Scholar. Among the many criticisms of Judgment: Arlene Letho, “General Critique,” ca. early 1977, Save Lake Superior Association Papers, Box 1, Northeast Minnesota Historical Center, Duluth; “Merritt Clashes with Author of Reserve Book,” Minneapolis Tribune, 4 January 1977; “PR Man Helps Select Author of Book on Reserve Case,” Science, 195, 4277 (4 February 1977): 468; “The Case of the Hidden Sponsor,” Columbia Journalism Review 16:2 (07–08 1977): 13–15Google Scholar; Fanning, Odum, “Vanity Press,” Environment 19:6 (08–09 1977): 45–47.Google Scholar

Bartlett, Robert V., The Reserve Mining Controversy: Science, Technology, and Environmental Quality (Bloomington, 1980)Google Scholar; “New Book Calls Reserve Case Political” and “Author Feels Reserve Book is Objective,” Duluth News-Tribune, 13 July 1980; “Book Really Tells Taconite Tale,” St. Paul Dispatch, 19 July 1980; Maithes, Dieter, review in American Political Science Review 75 (06 1981): 487–488CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Walker, David review in Minnesota History 47:5 (Spring 1981): 205–206.Google Scholar

Bastow, Thomas F., “This Vast Pollution …”: United States of America v. Reserve Mining Company (Washington, D.C., 1986)Google Scholar; Douglas, Justice William O., dissent in United States v. Reserve Mining Co., Memorandum Decision, 95 S.Ct. (11 10 1974): 287–288Google Scholar; “Zeal Gets the Better of Anti-Reserve Attorney in Telling Pollution Case,” Duluth News-Tribune, 7 July 1986; “Commerce Nominee Faces His Critics Today,” New York Times, 10 September 1987; Sandvik, Glenn N. review in Minnesota History 57 (Summer 1991): 240.Google Scholar

3. Farber, “Risk Regulation in Perspective,” 1322–26; Findley, Roger W. and Farber, Daniel A., Environmental Law in a Nutshell, 4th ed. (St. Paul, Minn., 1996): 157–181Google Scholar; Farber, Daniel A., “The Legacy of Reserve Mining,” in “A Tribute to Judge Myron Bright,” Minnesota Law Review 83:2 (12 1998): 299–302.Google Scholar

On Reserve and Ethyl, see Judge Wright's reference in Ethyl Corporation v. EPA (541 F.2d 1, D.C. Cir., 1976): 37–46, 60–61, 68–72, 108–10, 119, 125–29; “Court Backs Curb on Gasoline Lead,” New York Times, 20 March 1976; Jasanoff, Sheila, Science at the Bar: Law, Science and Technology in America (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), 36–39Google Scholar; Percival, Robert V., “Responding to Environmental Risk: A Pluralistic Perspective,” Pace Environmental Review 14 (Summer 1997): 518–521.Google Scholar On Lord and Wright: “You have to Stand and Be Counted: Activist Judges,” Washington Post, 20 July 1976.

For examples of imminent and substantial endangerment and Reserve precedent, see these EPA memoranda (from website: epa.gov): Lee M. Thomas and Courtney M. Price, Office of Solid Waste and Special Counsel for Enforcement, EPA to Regional Administrators, “Guidance Memorandum on Use and Issuance of Administrative Orders on Section 106(a) of CERCLA,” 8 September, 1983, 6–7; Christopher Sproul, Office of Regional Counsel, Region 9 to UIC Section Chief, Region 9, “The Meaning of ‘Endangers’ or ‘Imminent and Substantial Endangerment’ of Drinking Water Sources Under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” 28 January 1988, 8–13.

The legal scholarship on the importance of Reserve to the development of environmental risk regulation is copious. Some additional recent examples include: O'Brien, David M., What Process is Due? Courts and Science-Policy Disputes (New York, 1987), 71–106Google Scholar; Schartzbauer, Edward and Shindell, Sidney, “Cancer and the Adjudicative Process: The Interface of Environmental Protection and Toxic Tort Law,” American Journal of Law and Medicine 14 (1988): 23–27, 61– 63Google Scholar; Applegate, John S., “The Perils of Unreasonable Risk: Information, Regulatory Policy, and Toxic Substances Control,” Columbia Law Review 91 (03 1991): 264–267, 271–74, 286–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burger, Edward J., “Better Science by Litigators, Better Management by Courts: Drawing on the Pre-Daubert Experience in the Post-Daubert Era,” National Legal Center for the Public Interest (01 1997): 10–14.Google Scholar

4. Two contemporary statements of Bright and Lord on Reserve Ming are found in Bright, Myron H., “The Economy Versus the Environment,” North Dakota Law Review 53 (1977): 319–323Google Scholar, and Lord, Miles, “Keynote Address,” in Kraybill, H. F., ed., Aquatic Pollutants and Biologic Effects (New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 298, 29 09 1977), 201–209Google ScholarPubMed. See also “A Tribute to Judge Myron H. Bright,” Minnesota Law Review, 219– 24; Engelmayer, Sheldon and Wagman, Robert, Lord's Justice (Garden City, N.J., 1985)Google Scholar, chap. 6, “The Warrior Judge”; Corgan, Verna C., Controversy, Courts, and Community: The Rhetoric of Miles Welton Lord (Westport, Conn., 1995).Google Scholar

On Fride, see Fride, Edward T. and Erickson, Raymond L., “The Reserve Mining Controversy: Some Reflections and Projections,” Eastern Mineral Law Foundations 3 (1982): 14–1–14–20Google Scholar; “Duluth's Edward Fride, Best Known as Reserve Trial Lawyer, Dies at 59,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 26 February 1986; “Reserve Case Transformed Lawyer into Specialist,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 14 March 1988; “An Era Ends at Reserve Mining,” Duluth News-Tribune, 25 May 1980. See also Dodge, Sharon Hatch, “Satellite Date and Environmental Law: Technology Ripe for Litigation Application,” Pace Environmental Law Review 14 (Summer 1997): 699–700.Google Scholar

5. Kehoe, Terence, Cleaning Up the Great Lakes: From Cooperation to Confrontation (DeKalb, Ill., 1997), chaps. 4–5, epilogueGoogle Scholar; Hays, Samuel P., Explorations in Environmental History (Pittsburgh, 1998)Google Scholar; Rosenbaum, Walter, Environmental Politics and Policy, 3d ed. (Washington, D.C., 1995), chap. 5.Google Scholar

6. Hays, Explorations in Environmental History; Hays, Samuel P., Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955–1985 (New York, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cronon, William, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York, 1991).Google Scholar

Some additional sources providing direction in these areas are Stine, Jeffery K. and Tarr, Joel A., “At the Intersection of Histories: Technology and the Environment,” Technology and Culture 39:4 (10 1998): 601–640CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davis, E. W., Pioneering with Taconite (St. Paul, Minn., 1964)Google Scholar; Kakela, Peter J., “Iron Ore: From Depletion to Abundance,” Science, 212, 4491 (10 04 1981): 132–136CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; “At 25, Taconite Amendment to Die: It Was a Premier Fight of the ‘60s,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3 November 1989; Smith, Duane A., Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800–1980 (Niwot, Colo., 1993)Google Scholar; Power, Thomas Michael, Lost Landscapes and Failed Economics: The Search for a Value of Place (Washington, D.C., 1996), chaps. 1–5, 11Google Scholar; Hurley, Andrew, Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1940–1980 (Chapel Hill, 1995)Google Scholar; Strohmeyer, John, Crisis in Bethlehem: Big Steel's Struggle to Survive (Pittsburgh, 1994)Google Scholar; Velasquez, Manuel G., Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1982), chap. 5Google Scholar; Beauchamp, Tom L., Case Studies in Business, Society, and Ethics, 3d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1993), chap. 3.Google Scholar

7. For example: “Reserve's New Taconite Project,” Engineering and Mining Journal 157:12 (12 1956): 75–103Google Scholar; “Tailings Disposal System for Reserve Mining,” World Mining 31:13 (12 1978): 46–51Google Scholar; Skillings, David N., “Reserve's Environmental Improvement Project,” Skillings' Mining Review 69:2 (12 01 1980): 14–15, 58–61Google Scholar; Sassos, Michael P., “Reserve's Mine Management System,” Engineering and Mining Journal 185:9 (09 1984): 42–49.Google Scholar

8. On Verity, see Verity, C. William Jr., Faith in Men: The Story of Armco Steel Corporation (New York, 1971)Google Scholar; Heiman, Growver, “The Maverick Who Made Armco Stronger Than Steel,” Nation's Business 68:5 (05 1980): 51–59Google Scholar; Sword, Doug, “Former Armco Chief Recalls Glory Years,” Cincinnati Business Courier 3:3 (26 05 1986): 1–4Google Scholar; “Commerce Nominee Lobbied to Block Illegal Dumping Case,” Chicago Tribune, 30 August 1987; “Nominee's Ties to Tailings Case May Be Factor,” Duluth News-Tribune, 26 August 1987; Alden Lind, “Cabinet Pick Resisted Cleanup,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 29 August 1987; “Humphrey Urges That Verity be Rejected for Commerce Post,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5 September 1987; Grant Merritt, “Senate Should Reject Verity Nomination,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 23 September 1987; “Commerce Nominee Faces His Critics Today,” New York Times, 10 September 1987; Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate on Nomination of C. William Verity, Jr., to be Secretary, Department of Commerce, 10 September 1987 (Washington D.C., 1987); “Verity Says He Regrets Pollution,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 11 September 1987; “Verity's Veritable Change of Heart,” Duluth News-Tribune, 14 September 1987; “Calvin William Verity, Jr.,” Current Biography Yearbook 1988 (New York, 1988), 588–591.Google Scholar

9. Typical of the USW attitude throughout the pollution controversy: John Engberg, “Brief of the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Amicus Curiae,” in Reserve Mining Co. V. United States of America, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 74–1291, September Term 1973, 24 October 1974, Minnesota Attorney General Reserve Mining Files (AGRM), Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), Box IV-37.

See also “Rallying Strikers Hear Latest Steel Offer,” Minneapolis Star, 7 November 1977; “Reserve Co. Workers Reestablish Blockade,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 22 April 1987; “Permanent Closure of Taconite Disposal Site Could Cost $57 Million,” 13 September 1987; “Cyprus Minerals Stance Worries Steelworkers Union,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 12 April 1989; “Trustee Finds Reserve His Most Complex Case,” Duluth News-Tribune, 18 June 1989; “Former Reserve Workers Are Part of Taconite Revival,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3 December 1989; Zaburunov, Steven, “Northshore's Success: One Year Later and Still Making Iron,” Engineering and Mining Journal 191:12 (12 1990): 26–28Google Scholar; “Armco Settles Dispute Over Reserve Mining Pension Fund,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1 July 1994; Nyden, Philip W., Steel-workers Rank-And-File: The Political Economy of a Union Reform Movement (New York, 1984), 133Google Scholar; Kazis, Richard and Grossman, Richard, Fear at Work: Job Blackmail, Labor, and the Environment (New York, 1982).Google Scholar

10. For two contrasting views of the importance of Reserve Mining in the environmental health science issues of the 1970s, see Epstein, Samuel S., rev. ed., The Politics of Cancer (Garden City, 1979), 89–102, 308–10Google Scholar, and Efron, Edith, The Apocalyptics: Cancer and the Big Lie (New York, 1984), 71–73, 95, 117, 237, 483.Google Scholar

Two contrasting views generally on asbestos and the role of health sciences in environmentalism from the 1970s to the 1990s are found in Wildavsky, Aaron, But Is It True? A Citizen's Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues (Cambridge, Mass., 1995)Google Scholar, and Proctor, Robert N., Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know and Don't Know About Cancer (New York, 1995).Google Scholar

11. Most of the significant earlier medical evidence in the litigation is summarized in Federal Judge Myron Bright's decision: 514 F.2d 492 (8th Cir. March 1975), 506–20. Later studies are summarized in Farber, “Risk Regulation in Perspective,” Environmental Law, passim.

In Expendable Americans (New York, 1974), Paul Brodeur places Irving Selikoff and Mount Sinai in the context of the Reserve Mining asbestos debate. Also on Selikoff: “The Asbestos Mess,” New York Times, 25 November 1990; “No Meeting of the Minds on Asbestos,” Science 252, 5034 (15 11 1991): 928–931Google Scholar; “Irving Selikoff is Dead at 77,” New York Times, 22 May 1992.

DrBrown's, Arnold L. reflections on Reserve Mining: “United States v. Reserve Mining Co.: Prediction in the Face of Uncertainty,” in Novey, Lawrence B., ed., Causation and Financial Compensation: Claims of Personal Injury from Toxic Chemical Exposure (Washington, D.C., 1986), 209–213.Google Scholar

For two examples of controversial Science articles, see Cook, Philip M., Glass, Gary E., Tucker, James H., “Asbestiform Amphibole Minerals: Detection and Measurement of High Concentrations in Municipal Water Supplies,” Science, 185, 4154 (6 09 1974): 853–855CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; and Cook, Philip M. and Olson, Gayle F., “Ingested Mineral Fibers: Elimination in Human Urine,” Science, 204, 4389 (13 04 1979): 195–198CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. See also Shapo, Marshall S., A Nation of Guinea Pigs (New York, 1979)Google Scholar, chap. 7, “Asbestos Discharges: A Shadow in the Lake”; Burger, , “Better Science by Litigators,” National Legal Center, 10–12.Google Scholar

12. For some contrasting definitions of “asbestos” in relation to Reserve Mining and potential health effects, see Lord, Judge Miles in United States v. Reserve Mining Co., 380 F.Supp. 11 (D.Minn, 11 05 1974), 31–33, 39–54Google Scholar; Verity, C. William, “Armco Defends Itself,” Chicago Tribune, 21 04 1975Google Scholar; Zoltai, Tibor and Stout, James H., Comments on Asbestiform and Fibrous Mineral Fragments, Relative to Reserve Mining Company Taconite Deposits (Minneapolis, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency 24 03 1976)Google Scholar; Selikoff, Irving J. and Lee, Douglas H. K., Asbestos and Disease (New York, 1978)Google ScholarPubMed; Langer, A. M. et al. , “The Contamination of Lake Superior with Amphibole Gangue Minerals,” in Selikoff, Irving J. and Hammond, E. Cuyler, eds., Health Hazards of Asbestos Exposure (New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 330, 14 12 1979), 549–572Google Scholar; Ojakangas, Richard W. and Matsch, Charles L., Minnesota's Geology (Minneapolis, 1982), 136–138Google Scholar; Gross, Paul and Braun, Daniel C., Toxic and Biomedical Effects of Fibers (Park Ridge, 1984), chap. 2Google Scholar; Catherine, H.Skinner, W., Ross, Malcolm, Frondel, Clifford, Asbestos and Other Fibrous Materials: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry, and Health Effects (New York, 1988).Google Scholar

To the end of the federal trial, the plaintiffs and defendants were arguing about the health effects of Reserve discharges and “asbestos.” See, for example, Wright, George W., M.D., , “A Current Status Report Concerning Asbestos-Related Disease, Especially with Respect to Ingestion,” Reserve Mining Co. Memorandum, 1 09 1980, AGRM, Box VIII-2Google Scholar; Starns, Byron E. and Schoessler, James M., Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, to Judge Donald D. Alsop, RE: U.S. v. Reserve Mining, 21 08 1981, AGRM Box VIII-4Google Scholar; Stipulation of Dismissal, U.S. v. Reserve Mining, No. 5–72 Civ.19, U.S. District Court, Minnesota, 22 April 1982, Governor Al Quie Papers, Box 9, MHS. See the contrasting discussion on asbestos toxicity in Wildavsky, But Is It True? 185–201, and Proctor, Cancer Wars, 110–22.

13. “Gold Mine Study Discloses Peril,” New York Times, 30 March 1975; “S.D. Gold Mine is Named in Cancer Study,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 April 1975; “Misusing Science,” Duluth News-Tribune, 6 December 1975; Zoltai and Stout, Comments on Asbestiform, 13–33; J. Dean Gillam et al., “Mortality Patterns Among Hard Rock Miners Exposed to an Asbestiform Mineral,” in Saffiotti, Umberto, and Wagoner, Joseph K., eds., Occupational Carcinogenesis (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 271, 28 05 1976), 336–352Google ScholarPubMed; Merlyn G. Woodle, president Reserve Mining Co. to Governor Rudy Perpich, 28 February 1977, Box 6, Governor Rudy Perpich Papers, MHS; McDonald, J. C. et al. , “Mortality After Long Exposure to Cummingtonite-Grunerite,” American Review of Respiratory Disease 118 (1978): 271–277Google ScholarPubMed; Epstein, Politics of Cancer, 86–87; Gross and Braun, Toxic and Biomedical Effects, 39–44; Brown, D. P. et al. , “Retrospective Cohort Mortality Study of Underground Gold Mine Workers,” Cancer Research Monographs 2 (1986): 335–350.Google Scholar

14. On ingested asbestos, including Duluth studies, see McDonald, J. Corbett, “Health Implications of Environmental Exposure to Asbestos,” Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) 62 (10 1985): 319–328CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; “Report on Cancer Risks Associated with the Ingestion of Asbestos, ” EHP 72 (June 1987): 253–65; MacRae, K. D., “Asbestos in Drinking Water and Cancer,” Journal of the Royal College of Physicians 22:1 (01 1988): 7–10Google ScholarPubMed; Kanarek, M. S., “Epidemiological Studies on Ingested Mineral Fibers,” IARC Science Publications 90 (1989): 428–437Google Scholar; “WHO: Asbestos in Drinking Water No Health Hazard,” Public Health Reports 109 (September–October 1994): 716; Morris, Robert D., “Drinking Water and Cancer,” EHP 103 (11 1995): 225–231CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; EPA, “Integrated Risk Information System Substance File: Asbestos,” 1 March 1997 (from website: epa.gov); EPA, Office of Water, “National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Technical Fact Sheet on Asbestos,” in Drinking Water and Health, 27 January 1998 (from website: epa.gov).

On the calculation of potential deaths, see Farber, “Risk Regulation in Perspective,” 1344–45; Nicholson, William J., “Human Cancer Risk From Ingested Asbestos: A Problem of Uncertainty,” EHP 53 (11 1983): 111–113.Google Scholar

On Reserve occupational studies, see Higgins, Ian T. T. et al. , “Mortality of Reserve Mining Company Employees in Relation to Taconite Dust Exposure,” American Journal of Epidemiology 118:5 (1983): 710–719CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Cooper, W. Clark et al. , “An Updated Study of Taconite Miners and Millers Exposed to Silica and Non-Asbestiform Amphiboles,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 34:12 (12 1992): 1173–1180.Google ScholarPubMed

15. “Lung Study Points to Asbestos Link,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2 March 1985; “Health Worries on the Range,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3 March 1985; “Public Health Relations,” Duluth News-Tribune, 5 March 1985; “National Health Experts Find Asbestos Poses No Widespread Threat,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 13 April 1985; “Learn From Unwarranted Health Scare,” Duluth News-Tribune, 16 April 1985; Parker, D. L. et al. , “Public Health Implications of the Variability in the Interpretation of ‘B’ Readings for Pleural Changes,” Journal of Occupational Medicine 31:9 (1989): 775–780CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Minnesota Department of Health, Final Report: Feasibility Study of a Statewide Pathology-Based Cancer Surveillance System in Minnesota (St. Paul, 01 1986)Google Scholar; “Cancer Tracking Project Urged,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 22 March 1987; “High Incidence of Asbestos-linked Cancer Prompts Study in Northeastern Minnesota,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9 February 1994; “Cancer Mystery Ignored: Incurable Mesothelioma Is Striking Men in Northeastern Minnesota,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 21 December 1997; Minnesota Department of Health, “Minnesota Cancer Surveillance System,” in 1997 Guide to Minnesota Health Data Sources (St. Paul, Minn., 1997), 5.Google Scholar

On state cancer registries, see Steingraber, Sandra, Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment (New York, 1998), 32–45.Google Scholar

16. See Hays, Beauty, Health, and Permanence and Explorations in Environmental History for an analysis of the political culture of environmentalism. See also Kehoe, Cleaning Up the Great Lakes, chaps. 4–5, epilogue; Yeager, Peter C., The Limits of Law: The Public Regulation of Private Pollution (New York, 1991), chap. 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. “Try It—It May Be Safe,” New York Times, 4 October 1974; Burdens of Proof in Environmental Litigation, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Environment, Committee on Commerce (Senator Philip Hart, chair), United States Senate on S.1104, Amendment No. 1814, 19 November 1974 (Washington, D.C., 1975); Nelson, Senator Gaylord on Environmental Health Act of 1975 and amendments to TSCA, Congressional Record 121:4 (25 01 1975): 4244–4247Google Scholar; “Whose Risk?” New York Times, 25 April 1975; Banovetz, M. R., Reserve Mining Co., “The Senator's Errors,” New York Times, 29 06 1975Google Scholar; “Reserve Mining: The Standard of Proof Required to Enjoin an Environmental Hazard to the Public Health,” Minnesota Law Review 59:5 (April 1975): 923–26; Crewdson, Prudence, “Toxic Substances Controversy Continues, ” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 34:1 (3 01 1976): 13–17Google Scholar; Thomas, William A., “Judicial Treatment of Scientific Uncertainty in the Reserve Mining Case,” in Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Statistics and the Environment(Washington, D.C.:American Statistical Association,3 March 1976), 6–8Google Scholar; Carter, Luther J., “Toxic Substances: Five-Year Struggle for Landmark Bill May Soon Be Over,” Science 194, 4260 (1 10 1976): 40–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “Toxic Substances Control Act,” Public Law 94–469, 94th Congress, 11 October 1976, Section 2(b)(1).

On Ruppe, see “Reserve Hearings on Pollution Get Congressional Call,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 28 July 1976; “Reserve Faces Suit on Cost of Filtration,” Minneapolis Tribune, 31 August 1976; “Ruppe Is Challenged on Pollution Record,” Detroit Free Press, 9 July 1992.

18. Ruckelshaus interviewed by Bastow, Thomas and Rebuffoni, Dean in “Reserve Mining Provided Test for Ruckelshaus,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 25 03 1983Google Scholar. Also: “Mining Firm's Waste in Lake Superior Provides Critical Test of EPA Power,” Chicago Tribune, 24 January 1972; Governor Wendell Anderson to William Ruckelshaus, 25 January 1972, Governor Wendell Anderson Papers, Box 25, MHS; Representative John Dingell (D-Mich.), “EPA Asks Court Action to Stop Pollution of Lake Superior,” Congressional Record 118, 3 (3 February 1972): 2592–94; Russell, Edmund P. III, “Lost Among the Parts Per Billion: Ecological Protection at the United States Protection Agency,” Environmental History 2:1 (01 1997): 29–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

On the Land Division, see Cohen, Richard E., “Justice Report: Lands Division Seeks New Role, Prepares for Pollution Case Upsurge,” National Journal Reports (19 01 1974): 103–110Google Scholar; Simon, Susan C., “Environment Report: Reserve Mining Suit Illustrates Government-Industry Clash,” National Journal Reports (2 03 1974): 309–318Google Scholar. Thomas Bastow provides an excellent summary and ardent defense of the Land Division role in the Reserve trial in Bastow to Peter R. Taft, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 14 May 1976, AGRM, Box IV-45.

19. For various environmental activist perspective on Reserve Mining, see Zwick, David and Benstock, Marcy, Water Wasteland: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Water Pollution (New York, 1971), chap. 7Google Scholar; “Ralph Nader Reports: America's Unsung Heroines” (profile of Arlene Letho), Ladies' Home Journal 93:7 (July 1976): 22–24, 62; Laycock, George, “Call It Lake Inferior,” Audubon 72:3 (05 1970): 48–53Google Scholar; Mitchell, John G., “Corporate Responsibility in Silver Bay,” Audubon 77:2 (03 1975): 46–61Google Scholar; Grant Merritt interview in Minnesota Environmental Oral History Project, 15 April and 18 May 1988, MHS; “Outdoor Life to Honor Izaak Walton League Member David Zentner,” IWLA News Release, 1 May 1998; “Alden Lind: A Warrior of an Activist Wins a National Honor,” Duluth News-Tribune, 14 March 1998.

On Verna Mize, see Mize testimony in Environmental Protection Act of 1971, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on the Environment, Committee on Commerce, United States Senate on S.1032 (Senator Philip Hart, chair), 15–16 April 1971 (Washington, D.C., 1971), 63–79; “A Housewife Battles to Save a Great Lake's Beauty,” National Observer, 18 December 1971; “One Citizen Acts to Save Lake Superior,” in Odum Fanning, Man and His Environment: Citizen Action (New York, 1975), chap. 1; “Reserve vs Verna Mize—Her Tailings Fight Ends,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 15 March 1980; “The Lady of the Lake,” Newsweek, 104, 18 (29 October 1984); “She's Ready to March Against Reserve Again,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8 December 1984.

20. The Governor Wendell Anderson Papers (1970–76), Governor Rudy Perpich Papers (1976–78, 1983–92), and the Department of Natural Resources Commissioner's Files (1971– 82) in the MHS abound in Reserve Mining materials. See an interview with Robert Herbst, Minnesota DNR Commissioner (1971–77), focusing in part on Reserve Mining: Minnesota Environmental Oral History Project, 16 May 1988, MHS.

For overviews of Minnesota political culture during this period, see Elazar, Daniel J., “A Model of Moral Government,” and John E. Haynes, “Reformers, Radicals, and Conservatives,” in Clark, Clifford E. Jr., ed., Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and Its People Since 1900 (St. Paul, Minn., 1989), 329–359, 360–96Google Scholar; Williamson, Homer E., “The Minnesota Governor: Potential for Power,” and Scott Shrewsbury, “Minnesota Environmental Politics and Policy,” in Shrewsbury, Carolyn M. and Williamson, Homer E., eds., Perspectives on Minnesota Government and Politics, 3d ed. (Edina, 1993), 179–204, 241–71Google Scholar; Lass, William E., Minnesota: A History (New York, 1998), chap. 10.Google Scholar

Legislative Democrats proposed the first bills intended to deal with the Reserve crisis in March and April 1969—to ban the deposit of taconite waste in Lake Superior and to tax the deposit of taconite tailings in the lake on a per-ton basis: neither passed. See “DFL Task Force Hears Force Hears Charges of Taconite Pollution,” Duluth News-Tribune, 16 March 1969; “Lawmakers Urge Banning Tailings in Lake Superior,” Duluth News-Tribune, 29 March 1969; “To Silver Bay Reserve Men and Women,” Reserve Mining Company Newsletter, 3 April 1969, E. W. Davis Papers, Box 2, MHS; “An Act Relating to Fees for Deposit of Materials in the Waters of the State,” Senate File 2228, 18 April 1969, Governor Anderson Papers, Box 50.

“Environmental Policy Act,” Chapter 412, 1973 Laws of Minnesota, 895–907. See the analysis of the policy act in the Reserve litigation in Reserve Mining Co. V. Herbst, 256 N.W.2d 808 (Minnesota Supreme Court, 27 May 1977), passim.

21. Letho in “2 Million Asbestos Fibers Per Gulp,” Chicago Tribune, 2 April 1975.

22. For a good overview of what Reserve Mining, and its potential closure, meant to the people of the Iron Range, see Economic Adjustment Strategies in the Event of the Loss of a Major Employer (Duluth: Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, July 1977, 2 vols.).

See also Borren, Mary Grace et al. , Silver Bay: The Price of Indecision (Minneapolis, 11 1976)Google Scholar; Socio-Economic Group, Regional Copper-Nickel Study, Community Profiles of Eight East Iron Range Communities (St. Paul, Minn., 1977); Novak, Peter J. et al. , “Community Conflict and Models of Political Participation” (effect of Reserve on Ely), Rural Sociology 47:2 (Summer 1982): 333–348Google Scholar; Alanen, Arnold R., “Years of Change on the Iron Range,” in Minnesota in a Century of Change, 155–194Google Scholar; “Silver Bay Learns It Can Survive Without Taconite,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 25 June 1989; “Taconite is Back: Trimmed-Down Industry Recovers from Lean Years,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8 January 1996; “Out of the Pits: Minnesota Iron Range Pushes Diversification,” Wall Street Journal, 29 December 1996; Lass, Minnesota, 184– 96, 253–66, 294–301.

23. “Brick through the window,” in Jim Klobuchar, “A Need to Win Calls Perpich Home,” Minneapolis Tribune, 21 April 1982. “Typhoid Mary” in Perpich, “Letter to the Editor,” 10 April 1975, Governor Perpich Papers, Box 4. Jim Klobuchar, a Ranger and a columnist for the Minneapolis newspapers, had many insights on Perpich. For example: “Rodeo Rider to Lead the Grand Ball,” Minneapolis Star, 10 November 1976; “Down Here, It's Called an Inaugural,” Minneapolis Star, 30 December 1976; Klobuchar, Jim, Minstrel: My Adventure in Newspapering (Minneapolis, 1997), chap. 4Google Scholar. Representative of Perpich's philosophy on iron mining, the steel industry, and his background on the Range: “Governor's Remarks for the United Steelworkers,” Pittsburgh, 8 October 1988, Governor Perpich Papers, Box 3.

24. See “Biographical Sketch” in the register to the John Blatnik Papers, MHS; “He Was a Giant of Congress,” Duluth News-Tribune, 18 December 1991; “John Blatnik: One Who Did So Much For So Many,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 22 December 1991.

Merritt quote: “PCA Chief Predicts Pig's Eye Won't Pass,” Sain Paul Pioneer Press, 3 December 1974. See also Millet, Anne L., “John Blatnik, Democratic Representative from Minnesota,” in Ralph Nader Congress Project: Citizens Look At Congress (Washington, D.C., 08 1972), 1–21Google Scholar. A good summary of Blatnik's view of the Reserve Mining issue: Honorable Blatnik, John A., “The Asbestos Problem—Lake Superior,”Remarks at the International Conference on Environmental Health, Primosten,Yugoslavia,23 October 1973, Blatnik Papers, Box 113.Google Scholar

25. Stonehouse, Frederick, The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Marquette, 1996 updated edition)Google Scholar. For examples of Fitzgerald records with Reserve Mining ore, see 19 July 1968, Silver Bay, an all-time high for a single shipment of iron ore for a port on the Great Lakes, Skillings' Mining Review 57, 30 (27 July 1969): 34; 1 April 1973, Silver Bay, the earliest opening to the iron ore shipping period in eighteen years of operation, Skillings' Mining Review 62:27 (7 July 1973): 10.

See also “Lake Asbestos High, Duluth Area Warned,” Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 21 November 1975; Glass, Gary E., “Identification and Distribution of Inorganic Compounds in Water, ” in Kraybill, Aquatic Pollutants, 31–46Google Scholar; Logsdon, Gary S., Water Filtration for Asbestos Removal (Cincinnati: Environmental Research Laboratory, EPA, 12 1979)Google Scholar; Peterson, David L., “The Duluth Experience—Asbestos, Water, and the Public,” Journal of the American Waterworks Association, 70:1 (01 1978): 24–28Google Scholar; Millette, J. R. et al. , “Asbestos in Water Supplies of the United States,” and G. S. Logsdon, “Engineering and Operating Approaches for Controlling Asbestos Fibers in Drinking Water,” EHP 53 (11 1983): 45–48, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26. The “Stoddard Report” on Lake Superior tailings pollution: Part I: Summary Report on Environmental Impacts of Taconite Waste Disposal in Lake Superior and Part II: Basic Studies on Environmental Impacts of Taconite Waste Disposal in Lake Superior (U.S. Department of Interior, December 1968), in Charles Stoddard Papers, Box 3, MHS.

For three overviews of Lake Superior that include discussion of the Reserve case, see Bogue, Margaret Beattie, Around the Shores of Lake Superior: A Guide to Historic Sites (Madison, 1979)Google Scholar; Ashworth, William, The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History (New York, 1986), 6–7, 88–89, 106–7, 222–23, 242–43Google Scholar; Waters, Thomas F., The Superior North Shore: A Natural History of Lake Superior's Northern Lands and Waters (Minneapolis, 1987), 99–103, 302, 306, 309Google Scholar. Compare with Colborn, Theodora E. et al. , Great Lakes, Great Legacy? (Washington, D.C., 1990), a comprehensive environmental picture of the Great Lakes that does not mention Reserve Mining.Google Scholar

27. Lake Superior Lakewide Management Plan: Stage 3—Reducing Critical Pollutants (Lake Superior Binational Program, Draft—November 1999); John, and Mahan, Ann, Lake Superior: Story and Spirit (Gaylord, 1998), chap. 2Google Scholar; Great Lakes Atlas, 3d ed. (Environment Canada and EPA, 1995), chap. 4; Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Surface Water Guide: Lake Superior/St. Croix River Basin (St. Paul, 12 1997)Google Scholar; Lake Superior, in Great Lakes Information Network website, December 1999 (great-lakes.net), describes all seven Lake Superior Areas of Concern, including Torch Lake.

See also on Torch Lake: “Torch Lake Superfund Record of Decision,” 30 September 1992 and 31 March 1994, EPA website (epa.gov); Lankton, Larry, Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines (New York, 1991).Google Scholar

28. Mahan, Lake Superior, chap. 2. For examples of more recent scientific studies, see Batterman, A. R. and Cook, P. M., “Determination of Mineral Fiber Concentration in Fish Tissues,” Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 38:8 (08 1981): 952–959CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carlson, A. R. et al. , Cadmium and Endrin Toxicity to Fish Containing Mineral Fibers (Springfield: National Technical Information Service, 10 1982)Google Scholar; Plumb, Russel H. and Lee, G. Fred, “Oxygen Demand of Taconite Tailings,” Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation 55:3 (03 1983): 317–322Google Scholar; Schelske, Claire L. et al. , “Has Silica Increased in Lake Superior Waters?” Verhandlungen der Internationalen Vereinigung fur Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie, 23:1 (01 1988): 163–169Google Scholar; Tester, John R., Minnesota's Natural Heritage: An Ecological Perspective (Minneapolis, 1995), 277–280.Google Scholar

29. “Waste District Director to Head MPCA,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 January 1991; “Environmentalists Fear Worst of MPCA's New Chief,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 March 1991; “MPCA Appointee Passes Key Test,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 27 March 1991; Arrandale, Tom, “Reinventing the Pollution Police,” Governing Magazine (01 1996): 32–42Google Scholar; “State Official Resigns: Williams' Leadership Was Tenure of Change,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 20 June 1996; “Back to Business: The State's Former Ranking Environmental Protection Officer Goes to Work for Big Business,” City Pages (Minneapolis), 14 May 1997.

30. Al France quoted in Brissette, Jane E., “The Tale of Tailings in Silver Bay: The 25th Anniversary of Reserve Mining,” Corporate Report-Minnesota 25:11 (11 1994): 24–25Google Scholar; Merritt, Grant J., “The Reserve Mining Case—20 Years Later,” Focus on International Joint Commission Activities 19:3 (11–12 1994): 1–4.Google Scholar