Judge overturns Rock Creek Mine permit
A Montana judge sided with environmental groups in a decision to affirm Montana’s jurisdiction over defendant Phillips S. Baker Jr. in a suit over the long-contested Rock Creek Mine.
(Photo courtesy WOODS WHEATCROFT/FILE)
SANDPOINT — A Montana District Court judge is overturning water permit approval for the proposed Rock Creek Mine.
The Montana Department of Resources & Conservation permit would have allowed mine operator Helca Mining Co. and its subsidiary, RC Resources, to carry out groundwater pumping to sustain the proposed copper and silver mine in the Cabinet Mountains northeast of Noxon.
Earthjustice, which filed suit over the permit on behalf of the Clark Fork Coalition, Rock Creek Alliance, Earthworks and the Montana Environmental Information Center, contend the company’s own analysis shows such a major groundwater pumping effort would permanently dewater pristine streams in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.
The court’s ruling safeguards some of the purest waters in the lower 48 from the destructive impacts threatened by the Rock Creek Mine, said Earthjustice attorney Katherine O’Brien.
“The ruling also affirms that the state’s job is to protect Montana’s waters for the benefit of all Montanans — not to give those waters away to corporate interests without taking a hard look at the impacts,” O’Brien said in a statement.
Mine opponents argued in court documents that under all six modeling scenarios, the groundwater draw would reduce stream base flows by 10 percent or more in wilderness reaches of South Basin Creek, Chicago Creek, the St. Paul drainage and Unnamed East Fork Tributary. Under three scenarios, the appropriation of groundwater would reduce base flows by more than 10 percent in Copper Gulch and Moran Basin Creek, which also lie within the wilderness, according to court documents.
Under one scenario, base flow reductions would also occur in the East Fork of Bull River.
“Indeed, under multiple modeled scenarios the proposed appropriation would deplete 100 percent or more of the groundwater discharge to Chicago Creek within the wilderness and more than 50 percent of groundwater discharge to South Basin Creek within the wilderness,” the groups said in their briefings.
“When Congress designated the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, it did so to protect the abundance of unspoiled streams and lakes that make this temperate rain forest so unique,” said Mary Costello, executive director of the Rock Creek Alliance. “The state court’s decision affirms the need to protect wilderness waters from an industrial use that would permanently diminish and degrade them.”
Hecla Mining did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.