I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 588
To provide for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
and interconnected Federal lands and waters, including Voyageurs Na-
tional Park, within the Rainy River Watershed in the State of Minnesota,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY21, 2025
Ms. M
CCOLLUM(for herself, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. BEYER, Ms. BROWNLEY,
Mr. C
ASTEN, Ms. CHU, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. GARCI´Aof Illi-
nois, Mr. H
UFFMAN, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Ms. MORRISON, Mr. NAD-
LER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OMAR, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms.
S
TANSBURY, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. TONKO, and Ms. WILLIAMSof Georgia)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide for the protection of the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area Wilderness and interconnected Federal lands and
waters, including Voyageurs National Park, within the
Rainy River Watershed in the State of Minnesota, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Boundary Waters Wil-4
derness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilder-3
ness is a 1,090,000-acre Federal wilderness area, lo-4
cated within the Superior National Forest, that was 5
originally designated in the Wilderness Act of 1964 6
(Public Law 88–577). 7
(2) The Forest Service manages the Boundary 8
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which includes— 9
(A) nearly 2,000 pristine lakes ranging in 10
size from 10 acres to 10,000 acres, and more 11
than 1,200 miles of canoe routes; 12
(B) 1,500 cultural resource sites including 13
historic Ojibwe village sites and Native Amer-14
ican pictograph panel sites; and 15
(C) 150 miles of land and water on the 16
international border with the Government of 17
Canada. 18
(3) In 1978, Congress passed the Boundary 19
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act (Public Law 95– 20
495) to remove incompatible uses, prohibit mining 21
within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness 22
and on 220,000 acres of the Superior National For-23
est, and to provide management guidance to protect, 24
preserve, and enhance the lakes, waterways, and for-25
ested areas of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area 26
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Wilderness to enhance public enjoyment of the 1
unique landscape and wildlife. 2
(4) The federally recognized Grand Portage 3
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Fond du Lac 4
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Bois 5
Forte Band of Chippewa retain hunting, fishing, and 6
other usufructuary rights throughout the entire 7
northeast portion of Minnesota, including the 8
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, under the 9
1854 Treaty of LaPointe. All Bands have a legal in-10
terest in protecting natural resources and the Forest 11
Service shares in the Federal trust responsibility to 12
maintain treaty resources. 13
(5) The Rainy River Watershed lies within the 14
Superior National Forest, which contains 20 percent 15
of the fresh water supply in the entire National For-16
est System. 17
(6) The Rainy River Watershed headwaters 18
begin in northeastern Minnesota and flow north 19
through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilder-20
ness and Voyageurs National Park and into Canada 21
along the shared international border. These inter-22
national waters are governed by the 1909 Boundary 23
Waters Treaty, which states that ‘‘boundary waters 24
and the waters flowing across the boundary shall not 25
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be polluted on either side to the injury of health or 1
property on the other’’. 2
(7) The waters of the Boundary Waters Canoe 3
Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park are 4
classified as Outstanding Resource Value Waters 5
under Federal and State law, and degradation of 6
water quality is prohibited. A risk of mining develop-7
ment is acid mine drainage which generally occurs 8
when sulfide minerals are exposed to air and water 9
creating sulfuric acid, which decreases water pH and 10
leaches harmful metals such as copper, zinc, lead, 11
cadmium, iron, and nickel. 12
(8) Acid mine runoff from sulfide-ore copper 13
mining entering groundwater, rivers, streams, and 14
lakes harms aquatic life, degrades water quality, and 15
results in potential severe environmental impacts. 16
(9) A peer-reviewed study of water quality im-17
pacts from 14 operating United States copper sul-18
fide mines found 100 percent of the mines experi-19
enced pipeline spills or accidental releases: 13 mines 20
experienced failures of water collection and treat-21
ment systems to control contaminated mine seepage 22
resulting in significant negative water quality im-23
pacts. 24
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(10) The mining of copper and other metals in 1
sulfide bearing ore on Federal lands in the Superior 2
National Forest, within the Rainy River Watershed, 3
poses a direct and long-term threat from sulfide-ore 4
mining contamination to the pristine water and air 5
quality and healthy forested habitat of the Boundary 6
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs Na-7
tional Park. 8
(11) The likely contamination of the air, water, 9
and forested habitat of the Boundary Waters Canoe 10
Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park from 11
the mining of copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, 12
gold, and silver on Federal lands within the Rainy 13
River Watershed puts at risk— 14
(A) the nationally recognized natural re-15
sources of the area; and 16
(B) the region’s amenity-based and tour-17
ism industry, which if protected by a mineral 18
withdrawal, would grow by 1,500 to 4,600 more 19
jobs and $100,000,000 to $900,000,000 more 20
income over the next 20 years than if such min-21
ing were not banned. 22
(12) In 2016, the Forest Service issued a 23
Record of Decision which found ‘‘unacceptable the 24
inherent potential risk that development of a region-25
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ally untested copper-nickel sulfide ore mine within 1
the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe 2
Area Wilderness might cause serious and irreplace-3
able harm to this unique, iconic, and irreplaceable 4
wilderness area’’. The Forest Service subsequently 5
proposed a 20-year mineral withdrawal of Federal 6
lands and waters in the Rainy River Watershed. 7
(13) In 2018, approximately 20 months into a 8
24-month review period of the Rainy River Water-9
shed mineral withdrawal proposal, the Department 10
of Agriculture abruptly canceled the withdrawal ap-11
plication and abandoned the Environmental Assess-12
ment. 13
(14) In 2021, the Forest Service reinitiated the 14
proposal for a mineral withdrawal of National For-15
est System lands located within the Rainy River Wa-16
tershed. A comprehensive Environmental Assessment 17
was completed in 2022, which provided extensive sci-18
entific analysis and public input in support of the 19
Service’s recommendation in favor of withdrawal. 20
(15) On January 26, 2023, the Secretary of the 21
Interior issued the decision to withdraw 225,504 22
acres of public land ‘‘to protect and preserve the 23
fragile and vital social and natural resources, eco-24
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logical integrity, and wilderness values in the Rainy 1
River watershed’’ (Public Land Order 7917). 2
SEC. 3. WITHDRAWAL OF CERTAIN FEDERAL LANDS AND 3
WATERS IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. 4
(a) D
EFINITION OFMAP.—In this Act, the term 5
‘‘Map’’ means the map attached to Public Land Order No. 6
7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, Lake, and 7
Saint Louis Counties, MN and published in the Federal 8
Register dated January 31, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 6308). 9
(b) W
ITHDRAWAL.—Except as provided in subsection 10
(d) and subject to valid existing rights, the approximately 11
225,504 acres of Federal land and waters in the Rainy 12
River Watershed of the Superior National Forest in the 13
State of Minnesota, as located on the Map and described 14
in the Federal Register Notice, dated January 31, 2023 15
(88 Fed. Reg. 6308), are hereby withdrawn from— 16
(1) all forms of entry, appropriation, and dis-17
posal under the public land laws; 18
(2) location, entry, and patent under the mining 19
laws; and 20
(3) operation of the mineral leasing, mineral 21
materials, and geothermal leasing laws. 22
(c) A
CQUIREDLAND.—Any land or interest in land 23
within the area depicted on the Map that is acquired by 24
the United States after the date of enactment of this Act 25
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shall, on acquisition, be immediately withdrawn in accord-1
ance with this section. 2
(d) R
EMOVAL OFSAND, GRAVEL, GRANITE, IRON 3
O
RE, ANDTACONITE.—The Chief of the Forest Service 4
is authorized to permit the removal of sand, gravel, gran-5
ite, iron ore, and taconite from national forest system 6
lands within the area depicted on the Map if the Chief 7
determines that the removal is not detrimental to the 8
water quality, air quality, and health of the forest habitat 9
within the Rainy River Watershed. 10
(e) A
VAILABILITY OFMAP.—The Map shall be kept 11
on file and made available for public inspection in the ap-12
propriate offices of the Forest Service and the Bureau of 13
Land Management. 14
Æ
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