[MCN] BREAKING: MT & USFS Approve Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Mine

[Matthew Koehler]

State and Federal Agencies Approve Mine Underneath Cabinet Mountains
Wilderness in Northwest MontanaMontana, Forest Service permit Montanore
Mine despite evidence that project will degrade Wilderness rivers

February 12, 2016

HELENA, MT --- State and federal agencies today approved the Montanore
copper-silver mine proposed underneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in
northwest Montana’s Kootenai National Forest. The mine project planned by
Mines Management Inc. (NYSE-MARKET: MGN) will disturb more than 1,500 acres
adjacent to the Wilderness and remove up to 120 million tons of ore from
tunnels that extend underneath it. Despite the Montana Department of
Environmental Quality’s (MDEQ) Record of Decision
<http://deq.mt.gov/Land/hardrock/Montonore-Mine-Project> admitting that the
full mine project will violate state water quality law, the Forest Service
has nevertheless approved the full mine.

“Two scientific studies show that the mine will irrevocably harm Wilderness
rivers and streams that provide refuge for native fish and wildlife, and
provide cold, clean water to downstream communities,” *said Bonnie Gestring
of Earthworks*. “Based on the mining company’s own study, the Montanore
mine shouldn’t be built because it conflicts with state law to protect
outstanding resource waters.”

In the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), released in December,
the mining company’s own consultants predict the mine will diminish flows
in the overlying Wilderness rivers and streams for an estimated 1,200
-1,300 years, including depleted flows in East Fork Rock Creek, Rock Creek,
and the East Fork Bull River on the west side of the Cabinet Mountains, and
Ramsey Creek, Libby Creek and Poorman Creek on the east side of the Cabinet
Mountains. Pollution from the mine also threatens to wipe out vital
populations of bull trout, a threatened species protected by the Endangered
Species Act (ESA), and the massive mine development places the Cabinet
Mountains’ struggling grizzly bear population---also protected by the
ESA---at risk of extinction.

“It is irresponsible of Montana’s regulators to permit the Montanore mine
when they know it will divert this region’s precious groundwater,
dewatering wilderness lakes and streams in the process,” *said Mary
Costello of Save Our Cabinets*, a local non-profit organization. “Montana’s
decision admits that the planned mine would violate state water quality
laws, but the Forest Service recklessly approved the full mine anyway. Once
the company starts excavation and has inflicted the damage, there is no
going back and fixing the problem. No amount of study is going to change
that.”

Karen Knudsen, executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition, said the
decision to permit Montanore is worrisome, “When it comes to mining in
Montana, it’s important to get the full picture of the potential for
long-lasting, cumulative damage to vital creeks and streams. “The
cumulative impact of two mines in this wilderness area---Montanore and the
nearby Rock Creek Mine---is the elephant in the room, but no one at DEQ and
the Forest Service seem to want to address it,” she added.

The Montanore Project is already subject to litigation. Save Our Cabinets,
Earthworks and Defenders of Wildlife, represented by the non-profit
environmental law firm Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against the Montanore
Project in July 2015 for the mine’s impacts on threatened grizzly bears and
bull trout.

“Every analysis of the Montanore Mine has shown that it will inflict
irreversible damage on the Cabinet Mountains, one of the last remaining
refuges for threatened bull trout and grizzly bears in our region,” *said
Earthjustice attorney Katherine O’Brien*. “Our state and federal agencies’
disregard of that evidence and insistence on pushing through the mine
approval, whatever the cost, is irresponsible and unlawful.”

“The agencies are sacrificing essential habitat for threatened bull trout
and grizzly bears and wasting the substantial resources that have been
invested to help grizzlies retain a critical foothold in the Cabinet
Mountains,” *said McCrystie Adams, Senior Staff Attorney for Defenders of
Wildlife*. “Bull trout and grizzly bears’ recovery here will be seriously
jeopardized by the transformation of their habitat into a massive
industrial mine site.”
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