The past resurfaces for DFL candidate
Elwyn Tinklenberg ran into questions at a forum about the use of taconite tailings on roads while he led MnDOT.
By KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, Star Tribune - Last update: April 23, 2008 - 12:06 AM
Taconite tailings are seldom an issue in the Sixth Congressional District, where about 170 miles separate St. Cloud from the Mesabi Iron Range.
But taconite got dug up at a DFL Party luncheon forum Tuesday featuring congressional candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg, whose consulting firm advises a University of Minnesota research institute on potential uses (such as road construction) for the millions of tons of waste rock mined each year.
Former federal judge Miles Lord, who 30 years ago famously stopped Reserve Mining Co. from dumping tons of carcinogenic tailings in Lake Superior, distributed a letter at the luncheon and made statements essentially accusing Tinklenberg of helping spread "deadly taconite tailings" in Minnesota and across the country.
Tinklenberg defended the work, saying that the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth had tested the rock and found it safe, and that his role has been limited.
"It is not our project," he said. "We've only been asked to explore markets."
That Tinklenberg response in the last two quoted paragraphs, it sounds minimal and ancillary. The problem is the statements are not true. Tinklenberg is dissembling. He did much more than "explore markets." He's been trying to sell the junk all over the US of A. Moreover, Tinklenberg Group has gotten $94,280 for promoting the mine waste material as "Mesabi Hard Rock," and you should trust its safety too. And that NRRI "tested the rock and found it safe." That's straight out of the bull too. The test started December 2007, to see the safety dimensions - the public health threats - and it is a three year effort. It has just started, exploring the question of health and safety.
THE TRUTH: Tinklenberg Group, in exchange for cash, designed the promotional brochure.
Tinklenberg Group, in exchange for cash, designed the trade booth.
Tinklenberg himself, in exchange for cash, manned the trade booth promoting the stuff, safety studies not being done, the Judge in 1970's litigation having said it was unsafe to dump it into Lake Superior, because of the threat asbestos contamination raised with drinking water.
Here are NRRI document excerpt pages, (taken from reports you can download here, and here), proving the extreme role Tinklenberg Group, in exchange for cash, played in promoting the entire "Mesabi Hard Rock" effort at fobbing Big Steel's mine waste off on the unsuspecting public, without any due regard for safety and cancer and carcinogenicity problems or risks the stuff may have:
Going, like the Tinklenberg Group's memo said, to the highwaymens' trade shows and beating the Hard Rock drums, "a four minute promotional video, illustrating the qualities and applications of MHR," (cancer causation not included, after all, there's only so much you can put into a four minute video), and a booth design via a "Minnesota and Hockey theme ... [where] Visitors were treated to a chance to shoot a puck constructed from MHR aggregate, ...". And the folders and brochures were "reworked" and still came out looking like something green coming out of Linda Blair in "The Exorcist." Well, Elwyn, design must not have been your strong point. Booth and brochure - tacky and amateurish.
Whoa, that brochure is ugly.
And go the the linked NRRI reports, view the pic of the booth without geeks standing all around. It's really ugly too. Less obviously so in the picture with Elwyn and others standing around, ET pitching the material Judge Lord characterized as a health menace to the world. You can see, even with ET and others standing around, the lil' rink, where that MHR - Mesabi Hard Rock hockey puck could be slap-shot arould the trade fair by visitors, at visitors - think fast, heads up, all that.
And there's more -- confessing, with pride, to working the US and state DOT lobbying effort, to move the mine waste out of the Oberstar District:
As far as that Mesabi Hard Rock hockey puck that the first item touts, the Golden Jet says:
"It tastes like chicken."
And that opening quote, the one Elwyn Tinklenberg gave Strib, (Tinklenberg saying NRRI had tested the rock and found it safe), that's not true. The three year HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK TESTING began Dec. 2007, and is ongoing.
The jury has yet to be sent out, after the three years are up.
Prematurely, Elwyn Tinklenberg wants to pave the world with the stuff to get it out of Oberstar's district, at a profit to Big Steel, and he is beating the drums in exchange for cash to Tinklenberg Group. NRRI, per contracts with Tinklenberg Group, has paid the firm at least $94,280 over time, running from Tinklenberg's leaving his head highwayman status at MnDOT, to the present.
For "services."
SO --- The truth is largely if not precisely word-for-word as Judge Lord's published warning is reported to have said. Tinklenberg's role, also, is substantially what Judge Lord's published warning is reported to have said.
Tinklenberg. A key promoter.
In exchange for five-figure amounts of cash.
_______________UPDATE_______________
Part of what he was paid money for, was lobbying.