Protect Lake Pend Oreille, stop Rock Creek Mine

For more than 10 years, a dedicated cadre of concerned citizens has been working tirelessly to protect the pristine waters of Lake Pend Oreille - the economic engine of Bonner County's growth and prosperity and the reason many of us choose to live here. They have been protecting our lake from the certain pollution that would be caused from the proposed Rock Creek Mine in Montana that would discharge into the Clark Fork River, the main source of Lake Pend Oreille.

The Rock Creek Alliance, which recently opened new headquarters (on Fifth Avenue in Sandpoint), has been battling the silver mine, proposed by Revett Minerals, a Canadian mining company, by trying to convince the U.S. Forest Service and Montana and Idaho regulatory agencies that discharge from this mine would cause irreparable harm to the lake and its fish and wildlife.

The mine would generate a stream of perpetual pollution - from the underground mine cavity and from the unlined tailings impoundment - consisting of nutrient pollution (primarily nitrates and heavy metals, including zinc, copper, lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, manganese and mercury.)

Under law, Lake Pend Oreille is protected by two Idaho codes - it has been designated a "special resource water," meaning that no new discharges that would violate this statute are allowed, and it is a "health and recreation place." But, sadly, Idaho's governors (Otter and Kempthorne) have failed to take any action to stop the threat to Idaho's jewel lake. Idaho's DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) expressed concerns over the cumulative impacts to Lake Pend Oreille from the long-term discharge of metals, but the state was not proactive in ensuring that the lake's special status would not be violated.

 "In my view, Idaho was not aggressive enough with Montana in ensuring protection of our lake," said Mary Crowe Costello, executive director of the Rock Creek Alliance. "The state could have asked EPA (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) to intervene on its behalf and require a special hearing on Montana's wastewater discharge permit here in Idaho. Instead, Boise has either turned a deaf ear on this issue or hid behind the idea that it doesn't have the right to tell Montana what to do."

In contrast with Idaho's inaction, Montana's elected officials are very concerned about a threat to their largest natural clear body of water - Flathead Lake. Gov. Brian Schweitzer says Montana's issues with a proposed coal mine in British Columbia's Flathead drainage will have to be taken to the federal level. He and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus met with a group of 180 people in Kalispell to draft conditions that the mine owners would have to meet.

The Rock Creek Mine in Montana offers no economic benefits to the people of Idaho and, to the contrary, threatens our local economy which is very lake-dependent. We must insist that Idaho's elected officials step forward in protecting this priceless heritage. And November's general election ballot is a good opportunity. Make sure your elected official will oppose the Rock Creek mine before you mark your ballot.

JIM RAMSEY

Kootenai