The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have released the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for J.R. Simplot Co.’s Smoky Canyon phosphate mine expansion. It puts heavy emphasis on prevention of selenium leaching, along with monitoring of fish habitat and population and stream contamination. Each agency will issue records of decision sometime after a 30-day FEIS availability period starting Oct. 27, but a go-ahead is anticipated after unprecedented federal, state, and public scrutiny of the project, which Simplot says is essential to continuing operations in southeast Idaho.
“A lot of effort has gone into this EIS to develop on-the-ground mining practices and methods that are state of the art,” stated Joe Kraayenbrink, BLM’s Idaho Falls district manager. “The alternatives are designed to keep surface and ground water well within acceptable state and federal water quality standards. In the future, we should expect that mining and reclamation practices are held to an extremely high standard, and Smoky Canyon will be a trendsetter. It’s no longer business as usual.” Noting that the Simplot expansion has been under the microscope for over four years, Caribou-Targhee National Forest Supervisor Larry Timchak remarked, “As decision makers, we need to balance the public concerns with the laws and regulations that govern our management to reach a decision that provides for future phosphate mining in an environmentally sound and legal manner. I believe we have done that.”
But environmental groups believe otherwise and are talking appeal. Idaho Greater Yellowstone Coalition Director Marv Hoyt was disappointed but not surprised by the announcement that the agencies are on the verge of permitting the expansion. “The Forest Service and BLM are much too willing to allow the phosphate mining industry in Idaho to poison lands, waters, and wildlife at the expense of the public interest. In the case of the Smoky Canyon Mine expansion, the agencies are clearly making decisions based on politics and big money interests rather than as responsible stewards of the public’s resources. If the record of decision authorizes expansion as described in the FEIS we will have no choice but to appeal that decision.”
Hoyt didn’t comment on the agencies making prevention of selenium and other pollution the chief concern of their environmental analysis, which would require Simplot to implement an engineered cover system to prevent rain and snow from percolating through selenium-laden waste rock and into groundwater sources. Simplot spokesman Rick Phillips explained, “The idea is to keep the water away from the selenium.” Phillips also emphasized that the FEIS is an essential step to enable Smoky Canyon to provide an uninterrupted supply of phosphate ore to its Don manufacturing facility at Pocatello.
Geologist Bill Stout, BLM environmental project manager for the EIS, told Green Markets that an engineered store and release cover system over all potentially seleniferous materials, including both the backfilled pits and external waste rock dumps, takes advantage of the area’s unique geological and hydrological conditions and will place “90 percent of the selenium material back into the pits as backfill.” Simplot would also implement a 30-acre test cover prior to installation of the operational system. He said mining will take place from the north end to the south to maximize the backfill of selenium waste rock behind the mine sequence, which he termed “very important to reduce the exposure of the selenium material (assuring that) every potential seleniferous deposit be covered with the store and release cover.” He noted that the cover would use local rock, clay, and topsoil. Moisture remaining in the cover would be evaporated by transpiration from vegetation planted during reclamation that is to take place as mining proceeds to reduce exposure time.
In addition to the engineered cover to prevent the leaching of selenium, the agencies would require Simplot to utilize other measures to reduce environmental impacts, such as employing topsoil salvage and conservation methods; creating vegetative islands of diversity to promote reestablishment of vegetation; using best management practices to control sediment and culverts designed to pass adult and juvenile fish at perennial stream crossings; conducting migratory bird surveys prior to vegetation removal; and restricting ground disturbance to migratory birds. Both the construction and performance of the engineered cover would be monitored. Surface and groundwater monitoring programs would be implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of employed mitigation measures, provide early detection of possible impacts from the mine, and determine compliance with state and federal water quality standards. The fisheries monitoring program includes a three-tiered approach that would monitor fisheries habitat, fish populations, and possible contaminant levels in the fish and aquatic food base.
BLM officials pointed out that while the new Simplot mining activity will be unaffected for the most part by Forest Service roadless restrictions because of pre-dated leases, determination for a smaller lease modification section is being deferred because mining there is at least three years away and future legal action or ruling-making could change requirements in the meantime.