The U.S. Forest Service says its Eastern Idaho office legally approved a plan for the J.R. Simplot Co. to expand the company’s Smoky Canyon phosphate mine on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near the Idaho/Wyoming border.
Rejecting appeals filed by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Deputy Regional Forester Cathy Beaty in Ogden, Utah, said Caribou-Targhee National Forest Supervisor Larry Timchak complied with applicable laws and regulations in his June decision. “I believe this decision has been reached through careful environmental analysis and thorough consideration of the public’s concerns,” Beaty stated.
In a Sept. 5 letter to Marv Hoyt, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s Idaho director, Beaty said appeals by his coalition, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the East Idaho Group Sierra Club, and the Idaho Conservation League were filed in a timely manner and properly processed, but she dismissed appeals by the Caribou Clean Water Partnership and Defenders of Wildlife because those two groups did not provide input during a comment period.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition has criticized Timchak’s decision, arguing the Forest Service should make mining companies clean up 17 old mines that are under federal Superfund authority first.
Timchak ruled Simplot could build two haul roads and power transmission lines outside its leases to access them. The haul roads pass through parts of the Sage Creek and Meade Peak inventoried roadless areas. He also allowed Simplot to temporarily stockpile topsoil outside its leases.
Timchak said litigation is now likely. If that happens, it’s possible a federal judge will issue a temporary restraining order or an injunction on the expansion because of water quality and roadless rule issues, he said.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition indicates it plans to sue to block the expansion, arguing it would worsen selenium contamination in the Blackfoot River drainage. It contends the Forest Service ignored several legal issues.
Bill Bacon, general counsel for the Shoshone-Bannocks, will consult with tribal leaders to see if they want to file a motion to intervene in the Greater Yellowstone lawsuit or file their own complaint in federal court. He said the mine expansion could interfere with tribal treaty rights to off-reservation hunting and fishing opportunities.
Simplot spokesman Rick Phillips said his company would fare well in federal court. Arguments opposing the mine expansion have been addressed during a lengthy permitting process, he said.
Smoky Canyon expansion work includes new haul roads, power lines, temporary stockpiling of topsoil, and reclaiming mining pits. Simplot officials say the company needs to expand Smoky Canyon to keep its Don fertilizer plant near Pocatello running. Phosphate ore from the open pit mine is piped in slurry form to the Don Plant, where it is converted to fertilizer. The mine was opened in the early 1980s and is predicted to be depleted within the next two years. Company officials have said the expansion would provide a supply for another 15 years.