The dirty legacy of Reserve Mining/Kare 11, 2006
Interview with Priscilla Lord, daughter of Judge Miles Lord. March 13, 2015.
Judge Miles Lord left a great impact on the people of Minnesota. They knew that he had been working to help them; to protect them from the companies that were endangering the health of the community. They knew that he stood against "Big Business." He was an example of a judge who helped the everyday person.
|
Satire |
INNOVATIVE GREEN LIVING
|
This was the first case where a company was shut down as a result of their environmental impact. Judge Lord's ruling sent a message to other companies, telling them that there would be consequences to polluting and abusing their rights. It also sent a message to other judges. This message stated that it was now an acceptable thing to shut down corporations because of what they were doing to the environment. The case United States v. Reserve Mining gave the EPA more power to regulate corporate pollution.
|
After Judge Lord retired, he still expressed outrage that mining companies were mining taconite. He influenced the University of Minnesota to make a study about the health of miners living on the Iron Range. The study showed that people on the Iron Range are 2.3 times as likely to get mesothelioma than other Minnesotans. Because of this, a new law was created. It stated that after a person who lived on the Iron Range died, their body must be inspected for the cause of the death. This would help to keep a watch over how many people were dying of mesothelioma as a result of taconite mining in Northern Minnesota.