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A variety of issues arise in the Palouse-Clearwater region
Below are a few articles of recent environmental issues found in the
local news.
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Summitville cyanide leach gold mine
Colorado
EPA Superfund Site |
Buffalo Gulch Cyanide Leach Gold Mine
Elk City Mining, LLC (ECM) has submitted a plan to reactivate their
mining use for the Buffalo Gulch area. The proposed cyanide leach gold
mine would be located near the headwaters of the South Fork of the
Clearwater river just 2.5 miles from Elk City. According to John
Robison of the Idaho Conservation League the 200-foot deep open-pit
mine would threaten the domestic water supply for several homeowners
who live in the area and endanger wildlife such as Chinook salmon, and
the already threatened bull trout. ECM plans on using a method known as
Cyanidation to extract the gold. Mining companies that want to use this
method to extract minerals must obtain a permit from the Department of
Environmental Quality. Currently, there are four facilities in Idaho
that have permits to use cyanide as a method to extract minerals. The
Buffalo Gulch mine would be the fifth. The draft of Environmental
Impact Statement is currently on hold while the company continues
fundraising efforts.
For more information check out:
Friends
of the Clearwater
Idaho
Rivers United
or contact
John Robison
Public Lands Director
Idaho Conservation League
208-345-6942
Bureau of Land
Management
Bureau of Land Management
Stephanie Connolly, Field Manager
Cottonwood Field Office
1 Butte Drive
Cottonwood, ID 83522-5200
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Help Protect Meadow Creek from ORVs
Dear Friends,
Your Comments Are Needed on a Forest Service Plan for Vehicles in
Roadless Areas!
Meadow Creek, a spectacular drainage in the Nez Perce National Forest,
is under assault. Most of this 220,000-acre roadless area has been
proposed for wilderness designation in the past, as its outstanding
wilderness characteristics provide assets for wildlife, watersheds, and
recreationists. Contiguous to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and
adjacent to the Frank Church Wilderness (separated only by the narrow,
primitive Magruder Road), it serves as an important biological corridor
for species moving between wildernesses. Its contributions of cold,
clean water and anadromous fish runs make it the most important
tributary to the wild and scenic Selway River. But Meadow Creek is
under tremendous pressure from organized off-road vehicle (ORV) groups
who would like all of its trails opened to their motorized abuse.
The Nez Perce National Forest has released its draft environmental
impact statement (DEIS) designating routes open to vehicle use across
the entire forest. This "Travel Planning" effort is supposed to
address the problem of unmanaged and unregulated motorized recreation,
which has dramatically increased throughout the West over the last
decade. This lack of management has already caused incremental damage
of Meadow Creek and many other wild places in the Nez Perce National
Forest. Wildlands that once experienced only quiet recreation via
horse and foot travel are now being used by ORV enthusiasts.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The Forest Service analyzes five alternatives in their Designated
Routes and Areas for Motor Vehicle Use DEIS. None of these management
options close all of the Meadow Creek roadless area or other wildlands
to motorized vehicles, and one illegally allows off-trail ORV use.
Alternative 3 proposes the least destructive option; nonetheless, it
would open old, closed roads in sensitive areas and permit ORVs on
trails in roadless areas next to the Gospel Hump Wilderness. It would
also allow vehicle traffic on Trail 534 in Meadow Creek, for example,
which is erosion-prone and designed only for hiker and horse
travel.
Meadow Creek and other crucial roadless areas like Rackcliff Gedney, an
addition to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, should remain in their
wild state, free from damaging motorized use and harmful forest
practices, to be enjoyed unimpaired by present and future generations.
Fortunately, what is left of the Cove and Mallard roadless areas
adjacent to the Frank Church Wilderness is currently closed to summer
motorized recreation.
Get Involved in this Decision!
Nez Perce National Forest staff will hold four open-house, public
meetings from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m., for you to comment on their
motorized route designations:
January 27: Grangeville, at the Nez Perce National Forest office
January 29: Riggins, at the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area
office
February 3: Lewiston, at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game
office
February 5: Elk City, at the Red River Ranger District office
Before the comment period ends on February 26, 2009, please send your
input by e-mail to:
comments-northern-nezperce@fs.fed.us,
or by mail to:
Nez Perce National Forest
Attn: Designated Routes and Areas for Motor Vehicle Use DEIS
104 Airport Road
Grangeville, Idaho 83530
Additional Talking Points for Your Comments
1. Nez Perce National Forest officials should not allow motorized
recreation in any roadless areas in the forest, including Meadow Creek,
Rackcliff Gedney, and areas adjacent to the Gospel Hump Wilderness that
the Forest Service erroneously excluded from their inventory. All of
these wildlands hold immense value for wildlife, anadromous fish like
salmon and steelhead, and resident bull and cutthroat trout.
2. The Forest Service should restore to natural conditions the vehicle
trails that were illegally created by motorized use and should not
legitimize these trails as designated ORV routes through the Travel
Planning process. No DEIS alternative should allow cross-country
vehicle use anywhere in the Nez Perce forest.
3. The Rackcliff Gedney roadless area encompasses Gedney Creek, a
critical steelhead stream, and abuts the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
Opening trails to motorized passage in this wildland would foolishly
facilitate direct vehicle access to the wilderness.
4. The DEIS does not address or analyze snowmobile use in the national
forest, a significant flaw in the document. Almost every acre of
roadless areas is presently and would remain open to snowmobiles,
regardless of the alternative selected by the Forest Service.
5. The Nez Perce National Forest Plan states that "opportunities for
solitude and primitive recreation are outstanding" in the Meadow Creek
roadless area. Visitors have traditionally been people pursuing quiet
recreation: hikers, hunters, anglers, photographers, backpackers, and
bird watchers. The explosion of the ORV industry and the lack of
regulation and management of motorized recreation have precipitated the
incremental loss of places for quiet, primitive recreation and harm to
the southern Nez Perce Trail.
For the Wild,
Gary Macfarlane
Helen Yost |
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Update: Idaho Water Rights Senate Bill 1002 (3/20/09)
House Conservation and Resources Committee unanimously votes against
proposed legislation
Moscow-Pullman Daily News Staff report
Legislation that would have cleared the way for Moscow to provide water
to Hawkins Companies' retail development in Whitman County failed to get
out of an Idaho House committee.
Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, said the House Conservation and Resources
Committee unanimously killed the bill Tuesday afternoon.
The legislation was introduced by state Sen. Gary Schroeder and passed
through the Senate by a 35-0 count. Trail and Rep. Shirley Ringo,
D-Moscow, both opposed the bill.
Moscow has been trying since February 2008 to find a way to sell water
to Hawkins for use at its planned 700,000-square-foot shopping center
just across the state line from Moscow.
The bill would have amended state code to make it clear Idaho cities
could provide water to adjacent, out-of-state areas without any special
agreements.
Trail said he believed the bill failed partly because of
miscommunication and a misunderstanding between legislators and their
constituents.
"I think the sponsors of the bill felt they truly had the best
interests of Moscow in mind but had not foreseen some of the long-range
statewide potential implications or what the passage of the bill might
bring," he said.
Trail said Schroeder and the bill's other supporters believed they had
community support, but "that was certainly not articulated to Rep.
Ringo or myself."
He said many legislators feared the bill would lead to threats to the
state's water supply, such as that from the city of Las Vegas, which
has expressed a desire to purchase water rights in Idaho.
Schroeder said he's working on drafting another bill that would clear
up Idaho Code and allow cities to provide water to people who live
outside city limits.
The bill that was killed Tuesday included those provisions, he
said.
"Current law says cities can provide water only to inhabitants of the
city and as you know many cities provide water to people who live
outside the city limits. That's contrary to state law," Schroeder
said.
The Idaho Department of Water Resources previously indicated Moscow
couldn't sell water directly to Hawkins but needed an intergovernmental
agreement with Whitman County. Moscow's attempts to reach an agreement
with the county fell through in October, when a sale price could not be
agreed upon.
Moscow City Councilman Walter Steed, who led the charge to make the
water sale possible, said he believes the window for changing the law
has come and gone.
"I don't think changing the law in the next session is in the cards,"
Steed said. "I think the law change idea is finished."
Trail said the proposed water sale is "a very emotional issue" and he
wished the City Council well in its continued efforts.
"I think they need to get more citizen input and (keep) working
together," he said. "I think Mayor (Nancy) Chaney has maybe best put it
forward. ... We need to work together across state lines in terms of
where we share water resources."
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Currently, there is a bill in the Idaho State Senate proposing that
would allow cities to sell water to private developers across the state
line. "This bill would extend the 'right to continue use' of Idaho's
water to foreign users as long as they pay the 'ordinary charges'. A
city that availed itself of the opportunity to sell Idaho's water to
foreign users at a time when the city believed they had surplus water
available, would find that it could not ever stop the flow of Idaho
water out of state as long as the foreign users paid their ordinary
bills, even if the city's supply was diminished by drought or shrinking
aquifers. I believe that an Idaho city's first obligation is to its
citizens, not to foreign users. Keeping Idaho water for Idaho users is
and should continue to be the best state policy." (Mark Solomon PhD
Candidate, UI Water Resources)
To read the bill visit:
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2009/S1002.htm
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Senate OKs bill on interstate water lines
By William L. Spence of the Tribune
February 5, 2009
BOISE - Moscow inched a little closer Wednesday to its goal of
providing municipal water service to a new shopping center proposed
just west of the Idaho state line.
The Senate Resources and Environment Committee unanimously approved
a
bill that would allow Moscow and other municipalities to provide
water service across state lines, as long as the new service area
is
located immediately adjacent to the city limits. It now goes to the
full Senate for a vote.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, and
presented to the committee by Moscow City Councilor Walter Steed
and
city attorney Randy Fife.
Over the past several months, city officials and residents have
debated whether and how to provide water to a 714,000 square-foot
development proposed by the Boise-based Hawkins Companies. The city
initially protested the company's efforts to secure water rights
for
the project; however, when that route proved too expensive, it
negotiated an agreement to supply the water.
The intent, Steed said, is to ensure the city has some control on
how
much water is removed from the regional aquifer.
Hawkins has drilled two commercial wells on the property, which is
located along Highway 270. The concern, Steed said, is excess water
from the wells could be used to support additional development in
the
area. If Moscow supplies the water, the amount would be limited
exclusively to the shopping center. Hawkins would also cap its
wells
and return its water rights to Washington state, he said, as well
as
pay for the pipes and other infrastructure needed to deliver the
water from Moscow.
One of the main obstacles standing in the way of all that, he said,
is an attorney general's opinion that a joint interstate agreement
would be needed before Moscow could provide water to a project
located in Washington. Steed said Whitman County hasn't been
interested in pursuing such an agreement. Consequently, Schroeder's
bill would change state law to remove the requirement.
"This bill would allow us to provide water to the developer in such
a
way that the wells would be capped and the water rights
relinquished," he said. "We could provide water in such a way that
we
can protect the amount taken from the aquifer."
Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, asked whether the bill would somehow
"circumvent the will of the Whitman County citizens, by providing
water and allowing this development to proceed." He also questioned
whether Washington residents would have any further say on this
issue.
Moscow applied to the Idaho Department of Water Resources for
approval to supply the Hawkins project. No action has been taken on
the application yet, pending the outcome of Schroeder's bill. David
Tuthill, director of the agency, said if the application does move
forward, Washington residents would be able to comment and raise
whatever concerns they might have.
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