Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Technical contact: Dick Cordes, (651) 296-8157 Media contact: Mike Rafferty, (651) 297-8294 Toll-free: (800) 657-3864 St. Paul, Minn. -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) will hold a public meeting on May 25, 2005, to explain proposed air and water permits for the Mesabi Nugget LLC iron nugget production plant that would be built near Hoyt Lakes, Minn. The meeting will be from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Hoyt Lakes Arena Multi-Purpose Room, 102 Kennedy Memorial Drive. The public comment period for both air and water permits began May 13 and runs through June 13, 2005. The facility is located on part of the former LTV Steel Mining Company taconite mining and processing site. Iron nuggets produced by the facility would be approximately 96 to 98 percent iron and fed directly to electric arc furnaces and conventional iron and steel manufacturing facilities. The facility would be the first large-scale iron nugget production plant. The draft air emission permit and water quality permit (also know as a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and State Disposal System or NPDES/SDS permit) for the Mesabi Nugget LLC - Hoyt Lakes facility have been prepared in response to the project proposal. The permits are available for public comment until 4:30 p.m. on June 13, 2005. The contact person for the air emission Permit is Dick Cordes at (651) 296-8157. The contact for the NPDES/SDS permit is Richard Clark at (651) 296-8828. All MPCA staff can be reached toll-free at (800) 657-3864. Copies of the draft air and water permits are available for review at:
· MPCA St. Paul office, 520 Lafayette Road North, St. Paul
· MPCA Duluth office, 525 Lake Ave. S., Suite 400, Duluth
· MPCA Web site at/news/data/index.cfm?PN=1
Copies of the air permit may be requested directly from the MPCA by calling (651) 296-7505. You can get copies of the water permit by calling (651) 296-7225.