Friday, August 05, 2011
Grimes Creek (photo: Cala Clark)
Environmentalists have taken the U.S. Forest Service to court over its approval of mineral mining in Idaho that, they say, could pollute local waterways and habitat.
With the approval of the Forest Service, Mosquito Consolidated Gold Mines of Canada plans to conduct five years of exploratory mining to extract molybdenum, a component of steel products, from a site near Idaho City. Opponents of the project fear it will turn into the world’s largest molybdenum mine, and in the process contaminate rivers and groundwater with arsenic and harm protected species.
In their lawsuit pending before a federal court, the Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers United and the Golden Eagle Audubon Society accuse the Forest Service of not requiring the mining company to conduct a full environmental impact report on the mining.
The plaintiffs claim the drilling could contaminate Grimes Creek, which feeds into the Boise River, and degrade riparian habitat in violation of the National Forest Management Act and the Forest Service’s own Land and Resource Management Plan.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
U.S. Forest Service Lets Environment Slide (by Philip Janquart, Courthouse News Service)
Idaho Conservation League v. U.S. Forest Service (U.S. District Court, Idaho) (pdf)
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