In 2001, residents of the Deary/Bovill, Idaho area successfully challenged
development of a clay mine proposed for the upper reaches of the Moose Creek
drainage. The Idaho Department of Lands in 2004 issued the Canadian company
i-minerals ten mineral leases that authorize it to construct and operate a
large, open-pit mine on 4,649 acres of state lands in eastern Latah County.
Starting in October 2008, the company plans to mine for feldspar, quartz, and
clay and is also leasing private property for this purpose. The supposedly
relatively pure minerals derived from the proposed mine site could be used to
manufacture brick, ceramics, glass, paint, and tile. According to company
spokespersons, extracting the huge deposit of feldspar and running a nearby
processing plant could create 30 to 50 jobs and provide an economic boost to
the region over the 20-year life of the mine.
On August 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notified the public of an
i-minerals application for a 20-year permit to discharge excavated material
into13.78 acres of wetlands and 3,658 linear feet of streams during
construction of the mine, water diversion structures, a mineral processing
and tailings disposal facility, and a three-mile-long haul road near Moose
Creek reservoir. During the permit process, the Corps must consider and
evaluate the potential environmental effects of the proposed mining project.
They are required by the Endangered Species Act to consult scientists with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service
to determine possible impacts on local wildlife and fish and must also defer
to federal Clean Water Act regulations. This permit review includes a 30-day
public comment period until September 6, 2008, during which Friends of the
Clearwater is requesting a public hearing for concerned citizens.
Located among the evergreen forests and open meadows of the Clearwater
Mountain foothills above the Palouse prairie, several problems could arise
from this potential mine as described in the Corps application:
* The mining project straddles and occupies wetlands in Moose Meadows and
tributaries of Moose Creek, which contains important steelhead habitat
downstream from the Moose Creek Dam. Damaging aquatic systems upstream
compromises stream productivity, dislocates essential aquatic organisms, and
may induce declines of steelhead populations.
* Moose Creek and nearby reaches of the Potlatch River, into which it flows,
are already water-quality limited streams, due in part to closely proximate,
past and current logging, livestock grazing, damming, and mining activities
in the surrounding watershed.
* Discharging material excavated from an open-pit mine results in acid-mine
drainage and high sediment delivery potential to wetlands and streams in the
area already suffering from poor water quality.
* Forest Service personnel have observed lynx in the area, which are listed
as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Construction of this mine and
accompanying facilities would adversely modify or destroy potential critical
habitat for lynx.
* Located only a mile west of Bovill, Idaho and less than a mile away from
the Moose Creek Reservoir, construction and operation of the proposed mine
facilities would detrimentally affect air quality, noise levels, recreation
opportunities (especially primary contact water recreation), and aesthetic
enjoyment of the area’s natural attributes.
* i-minerals officials have not devised and submitted mitigation plans for
post-operational reclamation of the open pit and damages caused by fill
discharge and stream diversion. Long-term effects on area water quality
cannot be proficiently evaluated without this information.
* Destroying the water purification values of wetlands by removing the clay
deposits underlying their function cannot be offset and compensated for by
company purchases of wetland bank credits or funding and/or implementation of
watershed/wetland/floodplain restoration projects elsewhere. If the project
is approved, full restoration of wetlands and stream channels in the project
area is crucial to ecosystem integrity already degraded by other resource
uses.
For these and your own reasons, please ask the Army Corps of Engineers to
deny the permit to i-minerals requested through application number
2006-640-CO1. Mail your comments so that they are received by September 6 to:
Mr. Michael Doherty, Regulatory Project Manager
Coeur d’Alene Idaho Regulatory Field Office
C/o the Idaho Panhandle National Forests
3815 Schreiber Way, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83815
To review the diagram-rich i-minerals application to the Corps of Engineers
for a waterway impact permit, visit:
_ i-minerals Permit Application
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