Following 3½ hours of testimony before a packed federal courtroom in Pocatello, U.S. Magistrate Mikel Williams vowed on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to quickly decide whether to grant an environmental coalition’s request for an injunction to block the J.R. Simplot Co.’s expansion of its Smoky Canyon phosphate mine. He said, however, that he needed more time to review evidence.
The Smoky Canyon Mine is in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near the Idaho/Wyoming border. It is the sole provider of phosphate ore via a slurry pipeline to Simplot’s fertilizer plant near Pocatello.
The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management approved the project. The environmental coalition wants to reverse that approval, asserting that a plan backed by the federal agencies to prevent selenium contamination fails to account for seasonal variations in precipitation. The environmentalists were represented by Tim Preso of Earth Justice in Bozeman, Mont.
Simplot attorneys argued granting the injunction would create an economic disaster for the company and regional communities. Simplot attorney Albert Barker said the harm would be incalculable. Several communities and groups, including the cities of Pocatello, Chubbuck, and Soda Springs; Bannock County; and the Idaho Farm Bureau filed as interveners in support of the mine expansion.
It’s urgent to start preparations for the mine’s expansion now, Barker said, because ore in the existing Smoky Canyon Mine is predicted to be exhausted by 2010. An attorney representing the interveners said the mine and Simplot’s Don Plant support 1,800 jobs and pay about $3 million in annual property taxes.
To keep water from soaking into seleniferous rock, Simplot proposes to cap the waste material with a six-foot layer that would include an absorbent clay substance. Preso argued that models used to determine the effectiveness of that cap don’t consider the fact that Idaho’s precipitation is not evenly distributed throughout the year. He noted that a Forest Service groundwater expert wrote a memo questioning the lack of analysis about the seasonal water surge problem.
Preso contended that the cap’s technology has not been tested enough, and that Simplot has no backup plan should the cap fail. Rather than doing the necessary analysis in advance, Preso said Simplot and the agencies have opted to run tests after starting the mine to see if their plan works.
Robert Foster, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Denver, assured the court the cover has been well tested and modeling has been adequate. Lori Caramanian, another U.S. attorney with same office, said conservative estimates have determined the cover would actually be 50 percent to 60 percent more effective than water quality standards require. She accused Preso of “cherry picking” facts from the record and citing them out of context.
In the event of unforeseen problems at the mine expansion, the Bureau of Land Management would retain authority to order that the operation be stopped, she said.
Planning for the mine expansion has been in the works for five years. A team of experts from the BLM, the Forest Service, and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality collaborated on the plan. Proponents argued the proposed expansion has been thoroughly studied.
Many streams surrounding the existing Smoky Canyon Mine reportedly already exceed water quality standards for selenium levels. Smoky Canyon was designated as a Superfund site due to selenium contamination in 2002.
To remedy the problem, Simplot capped its tailings pile in Pole Canyon and built a pipe through the waste rock to keep water from washing selenium into nearby streams. Simplot has also taken steps to stop selenium contamination originating from another part of the mine.
Preso and his clients said they are not convinced that there aren’t other sources of existing selenium contamination yet to be addressed at Smoky Canyon. The expansion also would encroach into more than 500 acres of roadless public lands, they noted.
Barker countered that the evidence has shown that the remedy at Pole Canyon is working. A final Forest Service inspection of the Pole Canyon mitigation project is scheduled for the week of Nov. 9. It’s likely that regardless of how Williams rules, the case will be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The defendants named in the lawsuit against the expansion of Simplot’s Smoky Canyon Mine are federal agencies and top administrators, including Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne; Lawrence Timchak, supervisor of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest; and Bureau of Land Management Director Jim Caswell.