WaterLegacy

Minnesota’s most valuable resources are our freshwaters and communities. They are under attack by foreign billionaires and the politics of greed.

Lake Superior holds 10 percent of the world's unfrozen fresh surface water. And the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, along with the Superior National Forest, contains 20 percent of all the freshwater in the entire National Forest System. The mighty Mississippi River flows through the heart of the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Croix River is a federally protected wild and scenic river, home to endangered freshwater species found nowhere else in the world. Many of us have a relationship to at least one of these life-giving waters. Copper-nickel sulfide ore mining threatens our waters and communities across Minnesota––in the Boundary Waters (Twin Metals/Antofagasta), in the Lake Superior Basin (NewRange/Glencore), and in the Mississippi River and St. Croix River watersheds (Talon Metals/Rio Tinto). 

In 2026, you helped WaterLegacy oppose relentless threats to water quality, wild rice, environmental health, and environmental justice across Minnesota:

• We developed expert reports and technical comments to oppose the half-baked Talon Nickel/Rio Tinto nickel mine plan proposed in the Mississippi and St. Croix River watersheds. 
• We’ve fought to prevent NewRange/Glencore from reviving the rejected PolyMet copper-nickel mine and developing a Mega-Mine contaminating both the Lake Superior and Rainy River (Boundary Waters) watersheds.
• We’ve opposed Minnesota gas development without standards, U.S. Steel/Nippon Steel draft permits that fail to control toxic Minntac mercury and sulfate pollution, and expansion of a tailings dam adjacent to Lake Superior without considering the threat of dam failure. 
• We’ve asked our elected leaders to block bills that would gut federal clean water and environmental laws.

In just a few months, our small organization has drafted 10 sets of technical comments and enlisted your help to send 7,000 individual comments and signatures to state and federal agencies across comment periods.

The good news is there is nothing we cannot do if we work together to protect our Minnesota waters and our values. But we need your help to keep making good trouble and resist these threats to water and health.

This Give to the Max Day, our target is $30,000 to help us add a staff attorney to WaterLegacy’s lean workforce and ensure that we can sustain the level of effort needed to protect Minnesota waters and communities with the tools of science, law, and organizing. 

So much has changed as a result of WaterLegacy’s work in alliance with Tribes and other groups for the past 17 years. Here are a few of our successes:

• PolyMet Water Pollution Permit reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court as arbitrary and capricious due to improper procedures exposed by WaterLegacy. Permit also reversed due to failure to comply with groundwater standards. (2023). 
• PolyMet U.S. Army Corps Wetlands Permit revoked on Fond du Lac Band’s objection to violation of Band’s water quality standards. (2023) The basis for the objection was developed by WaterLegacy’s counsel in the first law review article ever to argue for that authority. (2015)
• PolyMet Permit to Mine reversed by the Minnesota Supreme Court due to state agency failure to set a permit term or show that PolyMet would control acid mine drainage. (2021) Administrative Law Judge concluded waste storage violated Minnesota reactive mine waste law. (2023)
• Groundwater Water Standards upheld by Minnesota Supreme Court, so agencies must analyze mine pollution of groundwater and through groundwater to surface water under the Clean Water Act. (2021)
• Sulfate Water Quality Standard that Protects Wild Rice preserved in lawsuit (2010), rulemaking (2011-2018), organizing to secure two vetoes of session laws by the Governor (2018), and in opinion of Minnesota Court of Appeals. (2020)
• Denial of Lax “Site-Specific Sulfate Standard for mining in Minnesota Court of Appeals case, so State agency must apply stringent sulfate standard to protect wild rice from pollution. (2025) 
• Reversal of State Decision to deny an EIS for Mile Post 7 tailings dam enlargement above Lake Superior despite its potential to increase the threat of catastrophic dam failure. (2025)

Why give now? Every dollar you contribute to WaterLegacy this year will be matched one-for-one by generous lead donors to help us meet our goal of $30,000. That means your gift of $50 will become $100; $100 will jump to $200; and $250 will give us $500 of support!

This is the time to stand together with thousands of Minnesotans who are fighting to protect our water and our future from greed and destruction. Thank you for your donation to keep us strong together!

Learn more about WaterLegacy’s work here and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and Linkedin.