And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
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From: "Joe Bryan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: Indian Law Resource Center
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 14:49:26 -0700
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Subject: Fort Belknap Indian Community presents Reclamation Plan for Mines
Fort Belknap Indian Community presents Reclamation Plan for Mines
March 24, 1999
Leaders of the Fort Belknap Indian Community today presented state and
federal regulators a proposed plan for fully reclaiming the Zortman and
Landusky Mines located immediately south of the Reservation. The two
controversial, open-pit mines used the cyanide method for extracting gold. The
mines were closed last year, and the companies operating the mines filed for
bankruptcy protection and reorganization.
The Tribal leaders told representatives of the federal Bureau of Land
Management and the State Department of Environmental Quality that the mines
must be fully reclaimed in order to protect the health and resources of the
Tribes on the Reservation and other residents in the region. They say the
plans favored by the BLM and DEQ in the past would leave the extensive pit
walls mostly bare and unreclaimed, and this would result in pollution from acid
mine drainage for thousands of years.
The plan proposed by the Fort Belknap Indian Community would completely
cover the pits and minimize or eliminate future pollution. The plan was
developed at the Tribes� request by Jim Kuipers, a mining engineer with the
Center for Science in Public Participation. Copies of the written plan were
made public on Wednesday.
The Tribes are demanding full reclamation of the mines because of the
threat that acid mine drainage will pollute the ground water when it seeps
through cracks and fissures in the rocks. State and federal plans call for
capturing and treating polluted water from the mines forever. The Tribes say
this is impossible and will inevitably result in extensive pollution of both
surface and ground water. The plan proposed by the Tribes would eliminate or
minimize any pollution and would not require perpetual water capture and
treatment.
The Tribes told BLM and DEQ officials on Wednesday that their plan for
full reclamation must be considered and adopted as the agencies study the
alternatives for reclamation and final closure of the mines. The alternative
of fully reclaiming the mine pits was never considered previously by the
agencies. The Tribes and two environmental groups sued the Department of
Environmental Quality in 1997 for failing to require full reclamation of the
mines, saying that the DEQ is violating the Montana Constitution, which
requires that �All land disturbed by the taking of natural resources shall be
reclaimed.� That law suit is still pending.
William Main, a member of the Fort Belknap Community Council, said,
�There are numerous laws intended to protect the rights of the people of the
Reservation, the foundation of which is our treaties. There are federal
agencies assigned to various aspects of protecting those rights. BIA, EPA,
DOJ, IHS, BLM have all been grossly negligent in looking out for our interests
since the mine started. Instead they looked out for interest of the mining
companies.�
The reclamation plan proposed by the Tribes is estimated to cost some
$120 million, compared to about $30 million for the plans previously adopted by
the BLM and DEQ.
For more information, please contact Ina Nez Perce at the Fort Belknap
Environmental Protection office, 406/353-2205 or Joe Bryan at the Indian Law
Resource Center, 406/449-2006 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Additional background
information can be found at www.indianlaw.org.
Distributed by the Indian Law Resource Center [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.indianlaw.org
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