Donald Trump’s penchant for lying has infected his cabinet. The result is a green light from the Trump administration for polluting mining operations right next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the country's most beloved federal wilderness.

In May 2017, Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, promised Representative Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) that his agency would conduct a two-year, science-based study of the potential social, economic, and environmental dangers of mining of copper-sulfide ore on federal lands adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) wilderness. “I’m not smart enough to know to do without the facts base and the sound science,” Perdue told a congressional panel, “and we are absolutely allowing [the study] to proceed.”

On Thursday, September 6, however, the U.S. Forest Service abruptly canceled the study and the application for a "mineral withdrawal" that would have prevented polluting mines on the edge of the Boundary Waters. "The Trump administration broke its word to us, to Congress, and to the American people when it said it would finish the environmental assessment and base decisions on facts and science,” said Alex Falconer, executive director of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.

Representative McCollum isn't happy about being lied to either. "Secretary Perdue broke his word," she said in a statement, "bending to political pressure from a foreign mining company and abandoning sound science to give a green light to toxic sulfide-ore mining in the watershed that feeds the BWCA." The "foreign mining company" she refers to is the Chilean company Antofagasta, controlled by a billionaire who just happens to be the landlord to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Even though there is no evidence that the Forest Service ever conducted the promised study, the USDA insisted yesterday that "the analysis did not reveal new scientific information." Therefore, "Interested companies may seek to lease minerals in the watershed." The administration's move did not come as a surprise. In fact, it was signaled by Trump himself at a June 20, 2018, "Make America Great Again" rally in Duluth:

Under the previous administration, America's rich, natural resources, of which your state has a lot, were put under lock and key, including thousands of acres in Superior National Forest. You know what that is, right? Tonight, I'm proudly announcing that we will soon be taking the first steps to rescind the federal withdrawal in Superior National Forest and restore mineral exploration for our amazing people and miners and workers, and for the people of Minnesota—one of the great natural reserves of the world.

Writing in Sierra in 2016, Conor Mihell explained the danger to the Boundary Waters from copper-sulfide mining in its watershed:

A place that's half land and half water is the absolute worst location for a new mine, critics insist. . . . Problems arise when the sulfur in waste materials reacts with air and water to produce sulfuric acid, a process known as acid mine drainage. Heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, and mercury are more likely to leach out of rock in acidic conditions. Acid mine drainage is almost impossible to prevent and can happen at any time—even long after a mine has been closed. . . . The EPA calls the mining of sulfide ore America's most toxic industry. In 2010, such mines accounted for 41 percent of all toxins released into the environment. "It is not a question of whether, but when, a leak will occur that will have major impacts on the water quality of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area," says Tom Myers, a hydrogeologist and water resources consultant.

The reopening of 234,000 acres in the Boundary Waters area to mineral leasing, says Margaret Levin, state director of the Sierra Club's North Star Chapter, "further cements the Trump administration's true view for Minnesota's future: corrupt cronyism driving corporate profits at the expense of future generations."