DULUTH — Environmentalists and the Fond du Lac band of Lake Superior Chippewa said the state isn’t doing enough to protect the public from toxins in the St. Louis River.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is expected to refute the criticism at a forum tonight in Duluth and explain how the state is dealing with toxic mercury in the river’s walleye, bass and northern pike.

The state decided to go it alone in its mercury studies after pulling out of a federally funded research project to get rid of mercury in fish from the St. Louis River.

State health officials said despite advisories against eating too much of the river’s fish, mercury has been found at unsafe levels in the blood of 1 in 10 infants on the north shore of Lake Superior.