J.R. Simplot Co. officials welcomed U.S. Magistrate Mikel Williams’s Aug. 4 decision to deny a request by environmental groups to impose a permanent injunction that would block the expansion of Simplot’s Smoky Canyon Mine.
His much-anticipated ruling essentially gives Simplot the green light to proceed with the controversial project, which will help ensure the continued supply of 1.5 million annual tons of phosphate ore to Simplot’s fertilizer plant near Pocatello, Idaho, and the employment of more than 500 workers at the plant and mine.
Meanwhile, Greater Yellowstone Coalition Idaho Director Marv Hoyt said his group plans to appeal Williams’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. While expressing disappointment, Hoyt said he was not surprised, asserting Williams incorrectly interpreted National Forest Management Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act requirements applicable to the case.
Simplot officials have said the 26-year-old mine’s phosphate reserves would be exhausted by 2010 if the company were not allowed to expand onto two panels in the Caribou/Targhee National Forest near the Idaho/Wyoming border. The expansion should provide ore for another 15 years.
“With the stringent monitoring requirements and safeguards in place, expansion of the Smoky Canyon Mine 800 yards from its existing mine into an adjacent portion of the known phosphate leasing area of southeastern Idaho appears to strike a reasonable balance between Simplot’s mining efforts and the employees, farmers, communities and other stakeholders affected by the expansion,” Williams concluded in his 53-page decision.
The federal judge said the NEPA process worked as it was designed in regard to regulating the Smoky Canyon Mine’s development on federal land. Environmental groups, state and federal officials, and the public had the opportunity to comment on the mine’s expansion, he noted.
As a result of that input and response by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, “the ultimate action is more protective of the environment than it would have been without the process,” Williams stated.
“We are delighted to receive a well-reasoned ruling in our favor,” said Larry Hlobik, Simplot president and CEO. “I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard on this project for us, including the local communities, counties and cities, and local citizens who have helped us in this long process. It appears at this time that we will be able to begin mining ore in one of the new sections in the fall.”
“Failure to open the new Smoky Canyon sections would lead to closure of the mine and our plant in Pocatello, resulting in the direct loss of about 560 jobs,” said Garrett Lofto, Simplot AgriBusiness Group president. “We have been working on this project more than nine years and have demonstrated beyond any doubt that all safeguards are in place to allow the mine expansion to move forward.”
Simplot officials noted Williams’s latest decision was the fourth consecutive ruling in favor of the mine’s expansion since environmentalists filed suit last fall.
Simplot spokesman David Cuoio cited a 2009 economic impact study conducted by Idaho Economics, a Boise research firm, that concluded if the phosphate mine and fertilizer plant were to close, it would have a combined economic impact of $171 million per year across 12 counties in Eastern Idaho and Wyoming.