Advocates Sue Trump Administration Over Mercury Exemptions for Taconite Plants

Minnesota state and national environmental groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s decision to exempt the nation’s taconite iron ore processing facilities from newly strengthened Environmental Protection Agency limits on mercury and other hazardous air pollutant emissions. The groups say the waiver is yet another example of the Trump administration’s overreach that undermines the country’s clean air safeguards.

The taconite industry contributes approximately half of the mercury emissions from all sources in Minnesota.

“As home to the majority of these facilities, Minnesota is particularly vulnerable to mercury pollution from taconite facilities. By carving out special exemptions for taconite plants, the Trump administration is effectively sacrificing our waters, our wild rice, and our children’s health so companies can keep emitting mercury into the air,” said Ashlynn Kendzior of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “That violates the law and it harms our communities, and we are going to court to stop it.”

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish and poses particular risks to those who are pregnant, to fetuses, and to young children. Many communities in northern Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where taconite facilities are concentrated rely on fish as a traditional food source, making them especially vulnerable to mercury contamination. State and federal health agencies have issued fish consumption advisories across Minnesota waters due in part to airborne mercury deposition.

“These exemptions put children, pregnant people, and communities at greater risk from mercury and other toxic air pollution so taconite facilities owned by well-resourced companies can keep delaying pollution controls,” says Shampa Panda-Bryant, senior attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Communities have fought for decades for protections that President Trump is unlawfully trying to undo with the stroke of his pen, and once again putting profit and pollution over people.”

The lawsuit, filed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and NRDC, in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeks to overturn a July 17, 2025 presidential proclamation that granted a two-year exemption from the EPA’s 2024 Taconite Iron Ore Processing air toxics rule. During the exemption period, these facilities are allowed to continue operating without federal standards for mercury emissions for taconite processing facilities and avoid new requirements to curb emissions of mercury, hydrochloric acid, and hydrofluoric acid, pollutants linked to brain damage in children, heart and lung disease, and premature death.

EPA’s 2024 taconite rule established, after years of advocacy by impacted communities, the first nationwide limits on mercury from taconite iron ore processing plants and tightened standards for acid gases like hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid. The agency found that these standards would significantly reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants from taconite plants in the United States.