Schools

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified Northern Iron as a lead risk in 2022, as part of a nationwide survey on high-emitting lead facilities upwind of schools. EPA identified nearly a dozen schools for targeted lead outreach.

Teachers, parents, and students are worried about how their health could be impacted. Many local schools don’t have air conditioning, so they have to leave their windows open in the summer. Children play outside in the playgrounds, breathing whatever is in the air and being exposed to any toxins deposited in the soils. In April 2025, the Saint Paul’s teachers union unanimously passed a resolution demanding that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency hold Northern Iron accountable. 

The map below, developed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, shows schools within 1.5 kilometers and downwind from Northern Iron.