Help Save Our Smith

In August, the latest cleanup effort on the Mike Horse Mine in the headwaters of the Blackfoot River began at a contract cost of $7.2 million dollars. That cost comes on top of the more than $40 million spent to clean up the effects of the disastrous 1975 spill of 200,000 cubic yards of contaminated waste that flowed downstream and sterilized the upper ten miles of the Blackfoot River. So far, more than $50 million has been spent on that one mine cleanup effort. Next year will be the fortieth anniversary of the Mike Horse blowout and we are still cleaning up the mess and dumping millions of dollars into the effort.
The state of Montana is laced with hundreds of similar problems large and small, caused by well-meaning mining companies. Cleanup continues at the Zortman/Landusky site, the Golden Sunlight mine and many others that have polluted our lands and streams for over a hundred years and cost millions of dollars to remediate.
Today, Tintina Resources, a small Canadian exploration company with little or no mining experience wants to put a massive copper mine and a similar potential disas-ter in place near Sheep Creek in the headwaters of our precious Smith River. Sheep Creek is the spawning stream for nearly half of the trout in the Smith River. Since the mine tunnels would drop below the level of the local groundwater, Tintina would have to pump water out of the mine to keep it from flooding. The pumped wastewater would contain arsenic and other toxic chemicals. Approximately 11 miles downstream from the proposed mine site lays the Smith River, one of Montana’s most important natural treasures.
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Tintina plans to drill four deep wells to test groundwater recharge rates at the mine site. To dispose of the arsenic-tainted water from the drilling, Tintina plans to use a process called “land application disposal”. This process would spray the nearly one million gallons of polluted water over 40 acres near the mine site during the growing season with the expectation that the water will evaporate before reaching the local groundwater. Arsenic in the pumped water will exceed standards for human drinking water, but will be below limits for irrigation and wildlife. Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited commented that, “There is a high likelihood that it won’t work, which means the company would potentially violate Montana’s nondegradation water quality standard. We don’t believe DEQ has the authority to allow that to happen based upon a subjective conclusion about risk,” “Earthworks spokeswoman Bon-nie Gestring agreed that the arsenic-laden water should be treated because the use of land application at other mines has always resulted in some harmful discharge.”
During the public comment period in July, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality received over 940 comments about the mine. For more information, please visit the MEIC website SaveOurSmith.com.