Chief U.S. Magistrate Mikel Williams has allowed nine parties to intervene on behalf of the J.R. Simplot Co. in a lawsuit challenging the company’s plans to expand its Smoky Canyon Mine on public land in Southeast Idaho near Wyoming (GM Nov. 10, p. 13). The cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck in Idaho, and Afton in Wyoming; the counties of Bannock, Caribou, and Power in Idaho, and Lincoln in Wyoming; United Steel Workers Local 632; and the Idaho Farm Bureau say valuable jobs and tax revenue stand to be lost if the phosphate mining operation is blocked.
In his Nov. 13 ruling, Williams also denied a motion by Ashley Creek Properties LLC, an opponent of the mine, seeking to file a memorandum as a friend of the court. Williams ruled the information presented by Ashley had been covered by previous briefings. Ashley Creek has long sought to have both Simplot and Agrium Inc. use Ashley Creek’s own phosphate deposits near Vernal, Utah, rather than developing their own new mines (GM Archives).
The case against the mine expansion was filed earlier this year by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife after the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management approved plans for the mine to extract new phosphate deposits in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorneys argued in court against the expansion.
The lawsuit named as defendants federal agencies and top administrators, including Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Bureau of Land Management Director Jim Caswell, and Caribou-Targhee National Forest Supervisor Lawrence Timchak.
The environmentalists said the mine would increase pollution. They also disagreed with a recent U.S. Forest Service decision to clear the way for Simplot to expand mining operations across more than 1,100 acres of roadless forest.
They said toxic selenium caused by previous mining has yet to be properly addressed and helped the region earn Superfund status more than a decade ago. Smoky Canyon and 17 former mines scattered along the edge of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem continue to pose an environmental threat to clean water, fish, and wildlife, the coalition said.
Simplot countered that without the ability to expand into new areas, it will be forced to shut down the Smoky Canyon Mine and Don fertilizer plant near Pocatello. Of the 375 employees at the Pocatello plant, 250 belong to the steelworkers union. About 200 workers are employed at the mine. Annual wages and salaries paid at the mine and plant exceed $52 million. Another estimated 1,450 people are indirectly employed by the operations, whose annual property taxes exceed $3 million.
Simplot has mined at Smoky Canyon, along the Webster Range, since 1984. Each year, about 1.5 million tons of phosphate ore are extracted from the mine and converted into slurry pumped through nearly 90 miles of pipeline to the Don plant, where it is converted into liquid and dry fertilizers used for crops across North America.
In court papers, company officials say ore deposits at Smoky Canyon are expected to play out by 2010, but expansion will allow the company to keep the mine and fertilizer plant operating through 2025.