Three environmental organizations have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Idaho urging that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of P4 Production LLC’s open pit Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine be rejected due to BLM’s allegedly faulty environmental review of the project.
P4, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, argues the crucial mine on the Caribou/Targhee National Forest is needed to sustain the company’s elemental phosphorus plant operations near Soda Springs, formerly owned by Monsanto Inc. The mine’s ore would be used to produce the herbicide glyphosate, used in Roundup weed-killing products.
Company officials said the Caldwell Canyon Mine would sustain about 185 mining jobs and 585 plant jobs for about 40 years, and would aid the region by providing $47 million annually in payroll, taxes, royalties, and purchases, as well as sustaining support and service jobs.
BLM approved the Caldwell Canyon Mine in August 2019 (GM Aug. 16, 2019) after issuing a final environmental impact statement three months previously. The project is designed to develop three leases on Schmidt Ridge in Dry Valley about 13 miles northeast of Soda Springs.
P4 would use mining methods at the Caldwell Canyon Mine similar to those used at the company’s Blackfoot Bridge Mine. Work would begin in time to transition from the Blackfoot Bridge Mine near the Blackfoot River, where ore is projected to be depleted in less than seven years.
In total, mining and support facilities would disturb about 1,559 acres – 153 acres of BLM public land, seven acres of previously disturbed U.S. Forest Service land, 230 acres of Idaho State Endowment land, and 1,169 acres of private land. The expected mine life would be 42 years, followed by an expected two years of reclamation.
Bloomberg Law reported that the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, and WildEarth Guardians in their May 13 filing charge that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to consider the effects of the mine’s ore processing on air quality, radiation risks, and “impacts related to water, noise, and wildlife.”
BLM also violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at the mine’s effects on greater sage grouse, the groups contend. Instead, BLM “grouped all wildlife species into a single discussion made up of unhelpful generalities,” they said.
They charged that BLM did not consider a reasonable range of alternatives to the project, rejecting the alternative of maintaining existing lease boundaries to protect greater sage grouse, whose population has declined in recent years.
BLM considered only two alternatives other than the “no action alternative” that were “not varied enough to allow for a real, informed choice,” the groups said, citing precedent. They added that the bureau violated the Clean Water and Federal Land Policy and Management acts by failing to require that the mine meets Idaho water quality standards.
BLM is “extremely unlikely to be able to support the same authorizations on remand,” they stated. The groups originally sued to block the project in April 2021.
The case is being overseen by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.