Enviro groups serve notice of selenium suit

Washington-Conservation groups represented by Earthjustice have issued a notice to the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and J.R. Simplot Co. that they could be sued for allowing selenium pollution at the Smoky Canyon Mine in southeast Idaho. The threat of a lawsuit comes at the same time the Forest Service and BLM prepared to approve expansion of the Simplot mine, with heavy emphasis on control of selenium contamination. A 60-day notice letter disclosed by Earthjustice asserts that open dumping of waste rock at the phosphate mine illegally contaminates the underlying aquifer with toxic levels of selenium. There was no response from Simplot about the impending court action. Earthjustice Attorney Lisa Evans insisted that “the mine and the Forest Service are breaking the law by polluting the water of one of the most beautiful regions in America and we intend to do something about it.” Evans said the open dumping violates the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by contributing selenium to the groundwater at levels above the RCRA regulatory standard. She noted that the Smoky Canyon Mine is one of 17 phosphate mines in southeastern Idaho that have been designated as Superfund sites as a result of serious selenium contamination. In fact, she added, current and past phosphate mining in the region has resulted in ongoing widespread selenium contamination of streams, groundwater, vegetation, and soil. Marv Hoyt, Idaho director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, which is involved in the action along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, charged that selenium pollution from phosphate mines in southeast Idaho has caused over 500 documented livestock deaths and untold numbers of wildlife deaths, and depleted native trout from streams in southeast Idaho. Hoyt said a retired federal hydrologist and cleanup expert has documented a decades-long cover-up by federal agencies and the phosphate mining industry that claimed publicly the harmful effects were not known until after a 1996 incident, when several poisoned horses had to be euthanized in a pasture downstream from a phosphate mine.