Soda Springs, Idaho — The Bureau of Land Management has given Monsanto 60 days to submit a corrective action report in regards to an earthen holding pond leaking three million gallons of water onto a meadow near its new Blackfoot Bridge Mine in southeastern Idaho’s phosphate-rich Caribou County. The March 29 breach along a spillway conduit in a catch basin created a 150-foot-long sediment plume on the wetland, but recent testing of the water showed no elevated selenium levels, said Randy Vranes, Monsanto’s mineral operations manager. The Blackfoot Bridge Mine is expected to start operating later this year, with a 17-year life expectancy. Monsanto’s South Rasmussen Mine is expected to be exhausted this year. Monsanto uses the phosphate from its mines to manufacture elemental phosphorus and Roundup weed killer at its plant near Soda Springs. BLM is working with other federal and state agencies to assess whether any statutory violations occurred and to review Monsanto’s reports and revised designs to ensure similar failures do not recur. The company has constructed a temporary berm so the pond is able to function consistent with the approved water management plan. Marv Hoyt, Idaho director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said he toured the pond failure site and there was not a lot of sediment that flowed into and covered the wetlands downstream. “On the other hand, it is somewhat troubling that one of the simplest and least complex pieces of a highly complex mine failed,” Hoyt said. “It certainly gives us reason to scrutinize future mine proposals in the region.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain