Save the Blackfoot. Vote NO on I-147.
Pollute Water Harm Property Rights Cost Taxpayers Millions Introduce No New Safeguards
WHAT IS I-147?

I-147 is a ballot initiative that overturns I-137, the initiative Montana voters approved in 1998 banning new and expanded open-pit cyanide-leach mining in Montana.

Colorado's Canyon Resources, which is proposing the 7 Up Pete Joint Venture/ McDonald Meadows Project, a very large open-pit cyanide-leach mine along the upper Blackfoot River, is the main funder of the initiative campaign.

The measure will be on the
November 2, 2004, General Election ballot.

If passed, I-147 will continue the legacy of open-pit cyanide-leach mining -- a documented legacy of failure that has polluted streams and drinking water, harmed private property and cost taxpayers millions in cleanup.

I-147 requires new and expanded open-pit cyanide leach mines to use measures that have long been required -- measures that have failed to protect important sources of water needed for people, livestock and fish near all major open-pit cyanide leach mines in Montana.

The director of Montana's Dept. of Environmental Quality, as well as other mining regulators, have publicly state I-147 contains nothing that hasn't already been required (See WHAT OTHERS SAY).

READ THE OFFICIAL DRAFT OF THE INITIATIVE

I-147 is an attempt to trick Montanans into believing technology that has been a proven failure is actually something new. These are I-147's so-called "new" requirements:

  • Leach pads and tailings impoundments must be engineered to contain "100-year" storms. The State has already required all major open-pit cyanide-leach mines in Montana to do this, but it hasn't stopped impoundments at mines from spilling and leaking cyanide and other pollutants into ground and surface water.
  • Ensure spills of cyanide solution from leaching vats have secondary containment for spills. The State has already required vat-leaching operations in to have secondary containment. Yet it hasn't prevented harmful contaminants such as cyanide from getting into drinking water sources near these mines.
  • Open-pit cyanide leach-mines must have contingency plans for spills. The State has long required permits for existing and past mines that use cyanide in Montana to have such plans. These plans haven't prevented significant pollution.
  • Monitoring of ground and surface water. The State has long required all mine permits in Montana to include monitoring plans. But monitoring hasn't prevented cyanide and other contaminants from seriously polluting drinking water sources on private land and trout streams.
  • Bonds for adequately covering reclamation. By law, the State has long required adequate bonding for mines but it hasn't prevented mines using cyanide from doing more damage than the bonds cover -- meaning taxpayers are paying for the rest of the cleanup.
  • Obey all other laws and regulations. Mines, as well as all Montana businesses and citizens already must obey laws and regulations. Though open-pit cyanide-leach mines have already been required to obey the law, it hasn't prevented them from violating water quality and mining reclamation laws.

Section 2 of I-147 includes language that says interests with a "contractual interest" or a "mineral estate diminished or lost" as a result of the 1998 voter-approved ban on open-pit cyanide leach mining, gets the contractual deal "mineral estate" reinstated. However, only one company has said it lost anything in 1998 -- Canyon Resources.

State lawyers and a court have told the company it is flat wrong. Section 2 is Canyon Resource's attempt to get voters to grant the company a property right it never had nor is entitled to on state land in the Blackfoot drainage. Some attorneys think Section 2 is unconstitutional.
IMAGE CREDITS: "When boom goes bust we all feel it," Billings Gazette opinion, November 19, 1997; Photo of Summitville Mine, a cyanide leach mine in Colorado that devastated 17 miles of the Alamosa River and cost taxpayers over $100 million for cleanup, by Earthworks/Lighthawk; "Lewistown ranch family sues Kendall Mine over water loss," Great Falls Tribune, May 20, 1998; "Bankrupt mine costly to EPA," Denver Post, December 24, 1992.
Save the Blackfoot. Vote NO on I-147. - Paul Roos, treasurer - P.O. Box 68, Ovando, MT 59854 - info@nocyanide.org