Published Friday,
October 22, 2004 HELENA - Opponents of an effort to repeal the state's ban on open pit cyanide leach mining released a study Thursday concluding that the proposed initiative doesn't really require any new environmental safeguards. "I-147 is a hoax," said Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited, one of the main donors to a committee formed to oppose the initiative. Supporters countered with figures of their own purporting to show that no mine in Montana met every single environmental safeguard in the initiative and that the initiative mandates the safeguards for the very first time. Initiative 147 would repeal the 1998 ban on cyanide leach mining, require certain environmental protections available before but not specifically required by law and restore mineral leases lost since the ban was passed. Jim Kuipers, a Butte engineer and owner of Kuipers and Associates, analyzed the environmental safeguards contained in I-147 and wrote in a 22-page report that none of the safeguards is new or more stringent than anything required in the state before open pit cyanide leach mining was banned. What's more, he said, the safeguards failed and damaged the environment. Kuipers was hired by Save the Blackfoot, a group formed to oppose I-147. I-147 supporters, a group called Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity, have run a series of television ads emphasizing the environmental safeguards contained in I-147. Kuipers' report looked at a series of environmental safeguards required under I-147, such as a requirement that all tailings ponds, cyanide leach pads and other mine structures be built to withstand a once-in-a-century flood. The defunct Zortman and Landusky mines near Malta had an identical requirement. But according to Kuipers' analysis, four once-in-a-century floods have beset the mines in their 25-year history, resulting in overflows and leaks. He concluded that at every major open pit cyanide leach gold mine ever opened in Montana, the safeguards required under I-147 were used and failed, and the mines contaminated the environment. Tammy Johnson, spokeswoman for Miners and Merchants, released a letter sent Oct. 13 from the head of the Department of Environmental Quality to the group's lawyer, stating that while the I-147 safeguards were available before, none was specifically required by law. "What is very new is the fact that there is teeth in the law with the passage of I-147," she said. "That would make these mandatory with no exceptions." She compared the difference to the passage of Montana's seat belt law. "We all knew we should have worn our seat belts," she said. "Now, it's the law." |