The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Aug. 10 released its draft environmental impact statement for Monsanto’s proposed Blackfoot Bridge phosphate mine in Southeast Idaho. Company officials say it will be one of the most environmentally advanced mines on the continent once it opens, tentatively by 2011.
Meanwhile, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, an environmental watchdog group, said it welcomes a mine more protective of the environment, but remains skeptical because Monsanto’s South Rasmussen Ridge Mine and other phosphate mine sites in the region continue to contaminate waterways with selenium.
The Blackfoot Bridge Mine, which would consist of three open pits, would replace a million tons of annual phosphate ore from South Rasmussen Ridge that feeds Monsanto’s elemental phosphorus plant near Soda Springs, where ingredients for its popular Roundup weed-killing chemical are produced.
At about eight miles northeast of Soda Springs, the Blackfoot Bridge Mine would be half the distance from the plant than the South Rasmussen Ridge Mine. The plant has been operating since 1952 and has received ore from four phosphate mines since its opening.
Annually, Monsanto spends $115 million in Idaho for wages, salaries, and payments to area vendors. It has an estimated $230 million annual economic impact on the state, paying nearly $3 million in state and local taxes.
Monsanto has embarked on an extensive advertising campaign to showcase its environmental achievements, recruiting former U.S. Interior Secretary and ex-Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus to endorse the new mine. Randy Vranes, Monsanto’s mine development manager, has been directly involved with the Blackfoot Bridge project for nearly five years.
Referring to the BLM issuing the mine’s DEIS, Vranes told Green Markets, “We’re certainly excited it’s coming out. It’s definitely a rigorous process. We believe the level of environmental protection that is planned into this particular mining operation is unprecedented. We think this will be one of the most environmentally friendly mines to come out in North America.”
Monsanto plans to spend $24 million on an extensive cover, lining, and water management system to protect the nearby Blackfoot River; between $10 million and $15 million on infrastructure; and another $5 million for retaining ponds, in addition to mining equipment capital. “There are additional environmental costs we haven’t really spent on previous mines,” Vranes said.
The Rasmussen Ridge ore is expected to be exhausted by 2013. Monsanto expects to blend its hard, black, unaltered pit bottom ore, whose chemical constituents are not ideal for processing, with Blackfoot Bridge’s near-surface ore. The Blackfoot Bridge ore is expected to last 15 years.
About 740 acres of mostly private land would be disturbed by the new mine operations, with only about 10 percent – or roughly 74 acres – on BLM land. About 80 of Monsanto’s 750 workers in the region would be employed at the mine. It also runs a silica operation and coke plant at Rock Springs, Wyo. “Without the ore, all those jobs go away,” Vranes said.
Marv Hoyt, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Idaho director, said his organization is pleased that Monsanto’s mine design is more protective of the environment. “We’re still somewhat skeptical just because we’ve heard the same story from phosphate mining companies in the past,” he told Green Markets. “We’re going to take a hard look at this. Given the track record of the mining companies around here, it would be pretty amazing.”
The coalition plans to hire consultants, hydrologists, and reclamation experts to scrutinize the Blackfoot Bridge Mine’s thick draft EIS, Hoyt said, adding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done little about the South Rasmussen Ridge Mine’s selenium water contamination. “It’s the same pollutant all these phosphate mines bleed into the
environment.”
Hoyt said he learned on Aug. 13 that 18 head of cattle east of Rasmussen Ridge near an old J.R. Simplot Co. phosphate mine recently died from selenium poisoning. The land reportedly is owned by the Bear Lake Grazing Association. “They tend to keep very quiet about this and only talk about it until they are caught,” he said, referring to mining companies. Simplot spokesman David Cuoio stated: “The area where the 15 to 20 cattle died is not near any present or past Simplot phosphate mining operations.”
It was discovered in 1997 that horses and sheep grazing near Southeast Idaho phosphate mining operations were dying of selenium poisoning. As a result, Monsanto, Simplot, Agrium, FMC/Astaris, and Rhodia each spent $1 million to conduct an area-wide study in conjunction with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
Several horses died near Agrium’s Mabey Canyon Mine in Caribou Canyon on pasture at the base of a mine dump. Sheep fatalities also occurred near Simplot’s Conda mine.
At least 17 sites southwest of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks have been polluted and are designated Superfund sites. The Blackfoot River is among 15 Southeast Idaho waterways where selenium leaking from mines exceeds legal standards, up from six in 2002.
In May, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) added Sheep Creek, a Blackfoot River tributary polluted by South Rasmussen, to its list of waterways that don’t meet standards due to selenium contamination.
EPA says Monsanto’s South Rasmussen Mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border continues to violate federal and state water quality laws by failing to stop discharges of heavy metal-laden waste dump water into the area’s waterways. It says the mine’s problems were first documented in April 2002 – 15 months after the BLM approved it.
Releasing the Blackfoot Bridge Mine’s DEIS starts a 45-day public comment period. Public notice of the report’s availability was expected to be published Aug. 14 in the Federal Register.
Monsanto hopes to start developing the Blackfoot Bridge Mine in the second half of 2010. Part of that mine would be reclaimed as work is completed. Waste rock would be used to backfill mining pits, which would be covered by a cap patterned after Simplot’s cap planned for its Smoky Canyon Mine expansion.
Monsanto’s cap, however, would include a laminated geosynthetic liner and special clay, which the BLM and IDEQ identify as their preferred alternative. Water would be pumped into lined overflow ponds. Trees, shrubs, and flowers would be planted atop it for wildlife habitat and for absorbing water. Waste rock piles would also be capped.
Southeast Idaho contains one of the richest deposits of phosphate ore in the world. Idaho supplies about 15 percent of the total phosphorus consumed in the U.S., which is used in fertilizers, herbicides, food additives, and other commodities. Phosphate mining and processing is a significant contributor to the area’s economy, employing more than 2,000 people in mining and processing with an annual payroll of about $120 million.
About 80 percent of the known phosphate deposits in Southeast Idaho are administered under federally-issued leases. The BLM Pocatello Field Office administers these leases, making it the largest, most complex non-energy leasing program in the bureau. The program returns about $6 million annually in royalties, rents, and bonuses to the Federal Treasury.