The recent spike in the price of minerals is leading to a resurgence in interest in mining public lands in the west. Anglers and hunters are concerned that increased mining could lead to widepread environmental degradation of the areas that they love and for good reason; more than 50% of America’s blue ribbon trout waters and 80% of critical habitat for elk is located on public land.
A coalition of four hundred conservation organizations have united to form Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining (and also apparently united by sexist language in organizational titles but I digress). This group, spearheaded by Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is leading an effort to reform the archaic 1872 Hardrock Mining Act. The groups goals include:
- End mining’s priority status on public land
- Recover a fair royalty for all minerals, present and future taken from public lands and establish a fund for fish and wildlife improvement projects associated with past mining
- Ensure that resource professionals have full discretion in the planning and permitting process to preserve public lands where high value fish, water and wildlife values exist
- Provide “Good Samaritan” reclamation incentives and liability relief
- Prohibit the sale of public lands under this law
Mining has a long and storied history in the west. Part of that story is habitat degradation on an almost unimaginable scale. According to the EPA 40% of western headwaters are contaminated. The U.S. Beareau of Mines estmates that 12,000 stream miles and 180,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs are contaminated by mining waste. In other words, it’s a huge mess.
Sportsment United for Sensible Mining released a report containing case studies chronicaling problems in 13 western states.
Montana: The Big Blackfoot River
A River Runs through It, pays homage to the Big Blackfoot which flows 132 miles joining the Clark Fork near Missoula. When Redford adapted the book to a film, the fishing scenes had to be shot on nearby rivers. The reason? Mining waste from the Mike Horse mine (which dates back to the 1800’ds) blew out in 1975 killing all aquatic life for a 10 mile reach and contaminated the remainder of the river. In classic fashion, the mine’s operator declared bankruptcy and left the taxpayers to foot the bill.
Idaho: Hecla Fork
Idaho’s Hecla mine is located near the Salmon River and the River of No Return Wilderness–the largest contiguous block of wilderness in the lower 48 states. Jordan Creek flows from the mine , which then joins the Yankee Fork after 7 miles which in turn flows into the Salmon River. The mine was opened in 1994 and touted as state of the art but caused problems almost immmediately. Cyanide leaked and a landslide buried 100 yards of Jordan Creek (federally designated critical salmon habitat). The mine operated only three years. Fearing a disasterous blowout, tailings are being piped to the nearby Yankee Fork, a “mixing zone” in agency speak but a sacrifice zone according to disgruntled anglers.
Nevada: Montana Mountains
An area that provides the best sage grouse habitat in the state has been exposed to little mining. That may soon change. Now the range is ringed with mining claims and should the actvity go forward habiat may be severley impacted. The sage grouse is in decline all across the west and that makes the Nevada population all the more significant.
Utah: The Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake is a waterfowl mecca–and a destination for 20,000 hunters annually. In 2005 the state of Utah issued a warning against eating Cinnamon Teal, Shovelers and Goldeneyes from the area. Surveys indicated that the mercury concentration in the lake were 100 times higher than normal and found mercury in high levels in the birds. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin linked to cancer, birth defects and brain damage. Mercury bio-accumulates, concentrations become greater as it moves up the food chain.
Colorado: Amosa River
In 1986 Galactic Resources opened a mine in the San Juan Mountains near the continental divide. Unable to handle the large amount of snowmelt running through the area, cynaide flowed unchecked into the Alamosa River. Galactic, aware of the imminenet disaster declared bankruptcy. Damage was severe. Resident Ignacio Rodriguez recalled finding the river running red on a fishing trip with his grandson: “The fish were all belly up. Rainbow trout and browns-all dead. It was sickening.”
New Mexico: Red River
In 1966, the water quality of this famed trout fishery was rated good to excellent. In 1994, the lower 8 miles of the river were declared biologically dead. The culprit: molybedunum mining.
Oregon: Illinois River
Given the high price of gold, small scale prospecters are flocking to the Illinois River prized for its biodiversity. The miners use suction dredges, passing the rivers gravel through sluices before being returned to the river. The areas preferred by gold seekers are also preferred by salmon and steelhead. Anglers find eroded banks, reduced vegetative cover and increased sedimentation. The Forest Service has found that far fewer fish spawn in areas that have been dredged than in areas that haven’t been.
California: Mid Klamath River
The Klamath is also threatened by “recreational mining.” The suction dredges stir up sediment that can smother redds as well as stirring up mercury that originated during operations in the 19th century. Estimates indicate that California gold rush miners lost 3,300 tons of mercury into the environment.
Arizona: South Rim Grand Canyon
The best place to hunt Elk in Arizona is in the crosshairs for Uranium mining development.
Washington: Okanogan Highlands and the Sanpoil River
In the 1880’s gold was discoverd on a portion of Washington’s Colville reservation. The tribes were pressured to cede the land, which they did in return for a promise that their hunting and fishing rights would not be compromised. In 1991 Battle Mountain Gold proposed a mine on Buckhorn Mountain on the ceded lands which the tribes opposed. There isn’t enough water to operate the mine so the current claim owner wants to truck the tailings to the the Sanpoil River which flows through the heart of the reservation. The Sanpoil provides excellent angling for Kokanee and Cutthroat trout and the tribes are getting double whammied.
South Dakota: Spearfish Canyon
Gold mining in the Black Hills dates back to the 1870’s but took a new turn in the 1980’s when four open pit cyanmide leach mines opened. The mines have been killing trout in massive numbers ever since.
Wyoming: Western Black Hills
The western Black Hills provide half the Whitetail harvested in the state but those lands are currently threatened by plans to mine gold and uranium. Taken in concert with increased plans to drill natural gas in Wyoming, the state’s wildlife are in danger.
Alaska: Berner’s Bay
Accesible from Jeneau, Berner’s Bay has magnificent fishing opportunites. Incredibly, the Army Corps approved a Couer D’Alane plan to dump 4.5 million tons of tailing into Kensington Lake, an action which would render the lake lifeless. That approval was overturned but the company still plans to mine the region.
Now if I had written the report I would have selected the Pebble Mine as Alaska’s greatest threat.
Anyway, as you can see the threats to wildlife and fish are widespread, diverse and enormous. The Hardrock Mining Law must be reformed.
I love Goooooooooooolllllllllllllllllld.
God please let this finally be revised/revoked/blown up
that law is a plague and an embarrassment
“I love Gooooolllllld” is the funniest blog comment I’ve ever seen.
Quote: “The Klamath is also threatened by “recreational mining.” The suction dredges stir up sediment that can smother redds as well as stirring up mercury that originated during operations in the 19th century. Estimates indicate that California gold rush miners lost 3,300 tons of mercury into the environment.”
It is interesting that only suppositions and slanted assertions are used in this article. The California EIR states that recreational mining has “no sigificant impact” on either fish or environment in the Klamath River.
While there are rivers that have significant mercury contamination, the Klamath is not one of them. Did you know that suction dredge miners remove mercury from our rivers and they do it at no cost to the taxpayer? Suction dredge miners are the only entity that currently and actively removes this substance from our rivers.
Did you know that mercury is also naturally deposited from native cinnabar deposits and this is ongoing today?
Was histor mining destructive? YES. The oldtimes didn’t know any better and practiced environmentally unsound mining. But we are not those miners. Todays miners have to abide by stringent environmental standards placed on them by regulatory agencies and government. Todays mining, whether recreational or commercial, bears no resembelance to the mining of the gold rush era.
Interesting also is the fact that fish survived the mining of that long ago time.
One other point in this article that I found interesting for its lack of understanding and willingness to perpetuate an untruth is this: Quote: “The suction dredges stir up sediment that can smother redds as well as stirring up mercury that originated during operations in the 19th century.”
The fact is that the regulations miners have to abide by prohibit them from mining when fish or fish eggs are at risk. Miners have very limiting “seasons” when they can mine. Miners are not mining when the fish spawn, it is illegal.
This article also asserts that: Quote: “The areas preferred by gold seekers are also preferred by salmon and steelhead.” This is patently untrue. Fish require clean, fairly uniform gravel to spawn in, you can see this in any redd you care to look at. Miners require much coarser material, preferrably with very large cobbles and boulders, this is unquestionably unsuitable habitat for fish to spawn in.
As far as stirring up mercury, it is actually caught in the miners dredge and he removes it from the ecosystem, if it a locatable mineral and has some monetary value to him. A recent study done said that miners remove 98% of the mercury that passes through thier dredge. That is a significant amount.
Winter flows and flood events put the whole river bed in motion and move mercury along the eintire length of the river on a scale that miners all combined could never even hope to duplicate.
One last untruth that was listed is this: Quote: “The Forest Service has found that far fewer fish spawn in areas that have been dredged than in areas that haven’t been.”
Just the opposite has been quantified. Studies have proven that fish prefer areas that have been dredged because the miners remove the boulders, pass uniform size gravel through their dredge and redeposit is in a form that is attractive to spawning fish. Fish have been documented spawning in dredge tailing piles. So a case can be made for miners creating spawning sites that would otherwise not be available to fish.
I would suggest to anyone interested in this subject, look at ALL the data and studies, not just heresay from biased obstructionists that thoughtlessly repeat untruths and half-truths.
Even if you did just prove that Klamath suction mining is an example of wonderful environmental stewardship and that we should dredge all of our rivers your rebuttal is sucessful only in very small part.
The toll taken by mining in the west is enormous and something needs to be done to clean up the legacy of past mining and ensure that there is a fund to clean-up messes caused by present and future mines. You claim that it isn’t the gold rush days and while that is true there a countless examples of modern mines causing contamination problems. The Formosa mine in Oregon has killed about 17 miles of tribs and isn’t exactly a gold rush days mine and neither are some of the examples cited above.
Really it is laughable to claim that modern mines have no impact to water quality because of improved technology. You could just as credibly ask everyone to please ignore the elephant in the corner.
I also urge those interested to look at many of the studies but lets face it–who has time to look at them all.
A good place to start delving into this issue would be the series by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Google formosa mine for a modern example in Oregon.
I can’t believe all the tree huggers in here commenting on something they know nothing about. First of all mining with a dredge is almost always banned in fish bearing streams during the times of year when fish are spawning and when we do dredge the tailings from sluice box make for excellent nesting material for fish to lay eggs. I couldn’t count the times I’ve went back to my claim during the salmon runs and seen hens in my tailing piles. As for the mercury the damage has been done as far as it being put into the river, any miner that finds mercury in the river now days instantly removes it and keeps it for fine gold extraction so dredging is actually good for removing mercury and creating nesting areas for salmon. You people really should quit drinking the Kool-aid.
There may be something to creating nice gravel bars. Of course, I wonder how on earth the fish managed to survive without you creating spawning habitat for them.
On balance, mining, particularly hard rock mining has devastated watersheds throughout the west. If you think that on balance mining has been good for western water quality, the reformers you bad mouth aren’t the ones drinking the Kool-aid.
I totally agree with Matt well said! I as well as many other miners are not gonna sit here and let you so called “environmentalist” have our property taken away! it IS OUR GIVEN RIGHT BY LAW !! As far as dredge mining goes …show me one study where it says that it’s bad ( it releases the minerals that the trout eat…duh) and i’ll show you studies from the epa saying that the tested water above mining is the same as below stream….get you facts strait…..hired studies don’t mean jack. Try fighting for our troops to get back home and stop trying to ruin the land we have. Just because you are too damn lazy to go out there and do some manual labor to get your own gold doesn’t mean you have the right to take my chance at making a living….assholes….
Thank you for your measured and well reasoned contribution to this debate.
I agree with you that suction dredging is the least impactful method of mining on public land.
The record of hardrock mining causing billions of dollars in mecury, asenic and other forms of contamination is indisputable. So too is the evidence that companies will not provide sufficient sureties to clean up the mess they leave behind.
We don’t plan on ending mining. We plan on breaking the cycle of plunder and bankruptcy filings and providing funds through royalties to clean up the toxic legacy mining has left behind.
The story of the Formosa mine is illustrative and typical. The canadian-japanese conglomerate declared bankruptcy and left the US taxpayer holding the bag.
http://flux.uoregon.edu/2007/northwest/toxic_riddle/toxic%20riddle.php
http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/ehap/fmsite.shtml
That is the mining industry.
ok but you can’t judge big operations and small sinlge man miners alike….i understand whatyour saying and agree to an extent but alot of family’s and good hard working people are going to loose what little bit of peace in their life, by loosing their work. that is going to drive up unemployment, homelessness, ect…ect. bottom line is that there ws no problen before ( in the siskiyou national forest until this became an issue. there has to be a middle ground here…ya know.