Idaho Cobalt Project faces new hurdles
BY TODD ADAMS
Idaho Cobalt Project officials still hope to begin construction on their proposed cobalt mine and mill in 2008, but the project faces regulatory and legal hurdles that may delay operations.
Mine plan
The Salmon-Challis National Forest's latest prediction was to have a decision on the mine plan by the end of this month, but that may be delayed for an indefinite period, said Ray Henderson, forest minerals specialist.
Henderson told The Challis Messenger this week that the Forest Service still must consult with other federal agencies on impacts to bull trout, salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The project is to be near the old Blackbird Mine in the Panther Creek drainage
The Forest Service expects to have a biological analysis finished in the next two weeks to send onto the fish agencies, Henderson said, but the consultation process could take up to 135 days after that. The Forest Service cannot make a decision on Formation Capital's mine plan for the Idaho Cobalt Project until that process is completed, he said.
There's also a 45-day public comment period on the Forest Service mine plan decision and EIS, then a 45-day appeal period that might come into play, Henderson said. If the maximum timeframe applies, that could total 225 days, setting Forest Service approval back to mid-May or later.
Bill Scales, Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP) manager, said the last formal communication from Forest Service officials was that a mine plan decision would be made by the end of October, but he quoted Yogi Berra who said, "Predictions are difficult, especially about the future."
He said the federal bureaucracy could move faster and approve the mine plan and discharge permit by early 2008. He said the 135-day estimate for consulting on endangered fish is a maximum, not a minimum, timeframe.
Formation Capital is still in court with the Blackbird Mine Site Group in an effort to get rights-of-way for road access and power lines through the old mine. Scales, said Formation Capital officials believe they're close to resolving the issue.
The Blackbird group has opposed the Idaho Cobalt project because it doesn't want the new mine to increase its cleanup responsibilities. The group is made up of several companies, including Black-bird's most recent mine operator Noranda Mining Inc., that are working with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Superfund site. Noranda stopped mining in 1982.
Water permit
The EPA also must decide whether to issue a permit for the project to discharge treated water into Big Deer Creek, a tributary of Panther Creek. That may be delayed due to a recent Court of Appeals decision in Arizona.
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled October 4 that the EPA erroneously issued a permit to an Arizona copper mining company for discharge into a creek.
Attorneys for both the EPA and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are studying the Arizona case, said Troy Saffle, regional water quality manager for the DEQ in Idaho Falls. So far, they're not sure how the case will affect discharge permits, so approvals are on hold.
Scales said he's optimistic the hurdles will not significantly delay the mine. Formation Capital has ordered the mill and still hopes to begin construction this spring. Waiting to order the parts would delay the project another year, he said.
Formation Capital attorneys believe the Arizona case will not affect ICP because the two polluted or impaired creeks are different, Scales said. There was no cleanup plan in place for the Arizona case, Scales said. The former operators of the Blackbird Mine are cleaning Big Deer Creek to meet water quality standards, at least for part of the year, he said.
ICP will not add to the cobalt, copper and other metals pollution in the creek, Scales said. A wastewater treatment plant will reduce metals to drinking water standards before discharging into Big Deer Creek.
DEQ believes Idaho Cobalt Project water treatment plans are good enough, provided some changes suggested by the agency are made, Saffle said. The company will have to track inputs of heavy metals into the Big Deer Creek, as well as what's removed.
"We see a way forward" toward permit approval, Saffle said, but it won't be simple to separate heavy metal inputs from the old Blackbird Mine and ICP.
Saffle said that while great strides have been made in the Blackbird Mine cleanup, state and federal water quality standards still have not been reached for Big Deer or Panther creeks on a consistent, year-round basis. Standards are met some seasons, but not during all critical parts of the life cycles for salmon and steelhead.
Blackbird Creek has never met standards, he said. The DEQ determined that cleanup to safe standards is not feasible, so the effort has been directed towards restoring Panther and Big Deer creeks.
Ultimately, the plan is to reduce toxic metals enough to allow reintroduction of salmon and steelhead. Options to recover the endangered fish include a fish hatchery on Panther Creek, or fish releases from other area hatcheries. Before fish can be reintroduced, safe water standards must be met for five years, he said.
Fran Allans, Blackbird project manager for the EPA, told The Messenger earlier this month that only one more cleanup action for the Blackbird Mine remains to be finished.
Previous cleanup has stabilized waste rock piles, built water storage and diversion dams, expanded a water treatment plant for surface and groundwater and removed arsenic-laden soils from private property downstream along Panther Creek.
EPA starts a five-year review of cleanup progress next year.
Mining has gone on in the area since the 1800s, but most cobalt was mined during the World War II era. Pollution from the Blackbird Mine, including cobalt and copper, killed off the salmon and steelhead runs in Panther Creek, while arsenic settled in sediments and posed health hazards for people living downstream. |
