Monday, September 20, 2004 I-147 challenges stewardship principle The Montana Association of Churches "Caring in Creation" position statement leads us to oppose I-147. The measure, which will appear on the November ballot, allows open-pit mining for gold or silver using heap leachings or vat leaching with cyanide ore-processing reagents. "The Montana Association of Churches affirms and supports: . . . protection of land, air and water through laws and policies that phase in prohibitions against the discharge of harmful emissions and effluents; restoration of air, land, and water quality whenever disrupted by harmful environmental practices . . . We call upon all citizens, corporations, and our governmental representatives to seek ways to safeguard the quality of the air, land and water which we and our descendants need to live healthy lives and to have productive employment." (MAC Caring in Creation Position Statement, adopted 10/27/1998.) "God intends the gifts of creation to be for the benefit of everyone. This implies that Montana's economic development is to benefit all of its citizens. Montana's natural resources cannot be wantonly exploited nor reserved for the advantage of a few." (MAC Caring in Creation Supporting Statement.) Canyon Resources, owner of the defunct Kendall Mine near Lewistown, is bankrolling an effort to pass Initiative 147. On August 16, 2004 Montana news sources reported $1,057,805 with 97% from Colorado Canyon Resources Corporation had been raised to back I-147. The group opposing I-147 has raised $2,676 with a $900 donation from Montana Trout Unlimited. Following are some of the reasons why this dangerous technology conflicts with our call to be good stewards of God's creation: The use of cyanide causes unreasonable risk to the health of people, wildlife and fish. Cyanide is the method of choice for extracting gold because it is readily available and inexpensive. The cyanide is sprayed on crushed ore and dissolves the gold into a compound from which the gold is recovered. Cyanide is left in the mine tailings. Cyanide in water rapidly breaks down into a harmless substance in the presence of sunlight and oxygen. It does not break down when it seeps underground, under cloudy or rainy days, or when snow and ice cover it. A two-percent solution of cyanide can kill a human adult. Lesser amounts cause breathing difficulties, heart pains, vomiting, blood changes, headaches, convulsions, enlargement of the thyroid gland. Five micrograms of cyanide per liter of water have been found to inhibit fish reproduction. Regulations do not guarantee a clean environment. In 1998, 800 people were hospitalized in Kyrgyzstan after a major cyanide spill. In 1994, ten miners were killed when a disused slime dam burst its banks and buried a housing complex in cyanide-laced mud in South Africa. Since 1982, there have been 50 cyanide releases at Montana mines, pouring millions of gallons of cyanide into soil, surface and groundwater resources. I-147 does not impose new regulations or restrictions. All requirements in I-147 are ones that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality has imposed in the past. So-called "new" restrictions ask mines to comply with environmental laws, but I-147 does nothing to strengthen existing environmental standards, which were inadequate to protect Montana waters from contamination in the recent past from cyanide heap leaks, nor from ongoing contamination after companies' abandoned their unreclaimed sites. Open pit cyanide leach mines threaten the private rights of neighboring landowners. Landowners downstream of the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall sold their property after their drinking water well was contaminated with cyanide. The Kendall mine near Lewistown contaminated neighboring ranchers' streams with toxic mine waste and depleted downstream water supplies. Eight neighboring landowners filed water rights complaints against the company. The Golden Maple mine near Lewistown was ordered to provide a rancher with an alternate water supply after 77,000 gallons of cyanide contaminated groundwater used both for livestock and the household. Montana taxpayers are left paying the costs of reclamation. Pegasus Gold Corp. declared bankruptcy in l997 leaving the State with insufficient funds to reclaim the Zortman/Landusky mine near Hays. The bond at Canyon Resource's Kendall mine in Lewistown is inadequate to pay for long-term water treatment. Millions more are necessary and even then, remedial steps may need to continue indefinitely. These costs are now the taxpayers' responsibility, because the company declared bankruptcy and its reclamation bonds only covered $13,000 of the millions of dollars of clean-up needed. There are alternatives to cyanide. The Environmental Protection Agency lists several alternatives to cyanide that are economically viable. For example in 1999 16 of 18 leading U.S. zinc mines did not use cyanide. In 1999 the Montana Supreme Court declared cyanide violates the state Constitution. Section 3 of Article II of the Constitution of the State of Montana ratified in 1972 states: "All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment. . ." What others are saying: "Wayne Jepson of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said the water treatment is something that will have to go on 'for hundreds of years, possibly forever' at Zortman and Landusky." - Helena Independent Record, 5/03/02 "This is a financial nightmare," said Mark Simonich, Environmental Quality Director, October 1999, in the Helena Independent Record article, "Zortman Landusky cleanup is draining the State" referring to agency funds being used to maintain a water treatment system. "It's not going to be something that we're ever going to be able to walk away from," said Warren McCullough referring to water quality problems at the Beal Mountain Mine. - Montana Standard, 7/14/02 "Several million gallons escaped from the Golden Sunlight Mine near Whitehall in 1983 and crated an underground plume that regulators say is still drifting slowly through the Jefferson Valley. No one is sure how big it is, how strong it is, how far it has gone, or what chemical changes it has undergone." - Missoulian, 4/10/90 |