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Lake TROY
Koocanusa 2
Lake
Creek
Kootenai
Troy Mine Facilities
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LIBBY Riv
CABINET
Lib
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er
by
Spar Lake
Bull
e C
k
Cr
re
2
MOUNTAINS
Lake
ee
R o ss
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Bu ll R i v er
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HERON k ar Cl
Montanore Mine Facilities
Rock Creek Mine Facilities
WILDERNESS
Cabinet Gorge Reservoir NOXON AREA MAP
rk Fo
MT ID
N Noxon
WY
Source data: USDA Kootenai National Forest Mining Projects 2005
Cabinet Re g i o n Mines
200
River
statute. Under the current mining proposal, pollutants—including copper, chromium, iron, manganese, and zinc, as well as nitrates and total inorganic nitrogen—could still be discharged at higher concentrations than other dischargers could hope to get away with. MMI has argued that the 19-year order should stand despite changes in water quality standards, best available technology, new findings related to the impacts of the mine, and the presence of threatened bull trout in most of the impacted streams. The state plans to grant that request. Mining facilities would include a tailings impoundment located between Poorman Creek and Little Cherry Creek. The impoundment would require the construction of a dam big enough to contain 120 million tons of mine tailings and waste rock. At completion, it would be 320 feet high, 10,650 feet long, and consume 675 acres of National Forest Land. The location of this impoundment has been plagued by problems arising from the presence of wetlands and seasonal springs, and the amount of space required to hold the massive amount of tailings. The proposed mine would create a host of environmental problems. At the forefront is the extensive dewatering that would result from the excavation of an enormous underground mine cavity that would divert virtually all of the groundwater in the region of the proposed mine. Impacts would be felt in both the Clark Fork and Kootenai River drainages, with groundwater depletion and reductions in stream flows most pronounced in the East Fork of Rock Creek, Rock Creek, the East Fork of Bull River, Libby Creek, Ramsey Creek and Poorman Creek. The EIS for the mine predicts that after mine closure, the East Fork of Bull River and the East Fork of Rock Creek would be hardest hit, losing 100 percent of their ground water recharge. The massive dewatering created by the mine would be ominous for the area’s bull trout populations. Bull trout were listed as threatened in 1998, and since that time bull trout critical habitat has been designated in the East Fork of Bull River, Rock Creek, and Libby Creek. To make matters worse, the East Fork of Bull River, which would be impacted the most, has the most productive bull trout fishery in the Lower Clark Fork River Bull Trout Recovery Area. With groundwater levels not expected to improve until reaching a steady state 1,200 to 1,300 years after mining ceased, or not at all, bull trout would be left high and dry, literally, in these critical streams. As if dewatering of key bull trout streams was not a big enough problem, wilderness lakes would also feel the pinch. Deriving only a small amount of their water from rain and snowmelt, the area’s alpine lakes are typically dependent on groundwater recharge. Most heavily impacted would be Rock and St Paul Lakes. Both are extremely
Reservoir
popular hiking destinations. Park at the trailhead for either, and you will consistently see cars from Montana, Idaho, Washington, and beyond. EIS modeling predictions are most dire for Rock Lake, which sits almost on top of the ore body, aptly named the Rock Lake Ore Body. Estimates are that the water table surrounding Rock Lake would be lowered by as much as 1,000 feet with groundwater flows not returning to pre-mining levels for 1,000 years. Rock Lake would slowly be starved of the ground water essential for survival. St. Paul Lake, already subject to low water levels during the dry summer months, would not be spared. This alpine lake would become a mere pond, drying up shortly after winter snowmelt disappears. As with the Rock Creek mine, fish and wildlife populations would suffer from habitat loss, disturbance, increases in
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www.TerraPen.com
hunting and fishing pressure, and poaching. Bull trout, westslope cutthroat and redband trout would be impacted not only from dewatering, but also from the introduction of sediment and heavy metals into local spawning streams. The construction of 16 miles of overhead transmission line to supply power to the mine would only add to the mine’s impacts. Declining populations and extreme sensitivity to human activities lend a particular vulnerability to several species in the area of the proposed mine. Grizzly bears, lynx, wolverines, and mountain goats would face the brunt of the mine’s impacts. The former two species are listed as threatened and the wolverine is a candidate for listing. Construction of mine tunnels (including one above Rock Lake), mine facilities, roads, and power lines would mean blasting,
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Page | The River Journal - A News Magazine Worth Wading Through | www.RiverJournal.com | Vol. 20 No. 12| December 2011