MISSOULA — A Cabinet Mountain mine is once again applying for permits after a period of inactivity, the first being a wastewater discharge permit from the state of Montana.
On Friday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced it intends to issue a new wastewater permit to the Montanore Mine for the water seeping from its Libby Creek adit or underground tunnel. DEQ has made a tentative decision to issue the new permit to Montanore Minerals Corporation, and the public has until Dec. 6 to comment on the permit and draft environmental assessment.
Although the Montanore Mine has been quiet for the past few years, the Montanore Minerals Corporation, a Hecla Mining Co. subsidiary, still has plans to dig a copper and silver mine below the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness that runs from north of Noxon and the Clark Fork River to just west of Libby. Hecla bought the Montanore mine in 2016.
The proposed permit would allow water discharge from Libby Adit during tunnel rehabilitation, expansion and exploration, and allow potential discharge of runoff from stormwater into Upper Libby Creek, according to the 17-page environmental assessment. Construction projects would affect about 14 more acres and include expansion of the existing waste rock storage area to increase capacity to about 77,000 cubic yards or about 7000 dump-truck loads; construction of a new waste rock storage area with a capacity of about 87,000 cubic yards; construction of a new 360,000-gallon waste rock sump; and upgrades to the water treatment plant.
The proposed permit would replace the current wastewater permit, issued in 2006, which allows for dewatering the Libby Creek adit only. The Montanore Mine Corp. tried once before in 2010 to get a more expansive permit, but the Montana Supreme Court eventually negated it in 2020 after a long legal battle.
In 1989, the previous owner of the mine, Noranda Minerals Corporation, applied to build a tunnel to discharge water into Libby Creek, which is critical bull trout habitat and requested authorization from the Board of Health and Environmental Sciences to discharge water that would exceed state water quality standards. The Board had that authority prior to 1993, but then the Legislature strengthened the state’s nondegradation policy.
As metal prices dropped, Noranda stopped building the tunnel in 1991 due to elevated nitrate concentrations in the stream water. In June 1992, the state of Montana sued Noranda after the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the company had violated the Clean Water Act in Libby Creek.
In the meantime, the Board of Health and Environmental Sciences issued a final decision in November 1992 approving Noranda’s request to degrade the surface and groundwater quality in exchange for anticipated economic benefits.
However, a 1993 court order required Noranda to get a wastewater permit, which stayed in effect even after Noranda ceased operations because Noranda didn’t complete its mine reclamation work in the late ‘90s so the adit could still emit contaminated groundwater.
Spokane-based Mines Management took over Montanore Minerals Corporation in 2004, DEQ renewed Noranda’s wastewater permit in 2006. Montanore Minerals applied for a new permit in 2010 to allow for discharge into not only Libby Creek but also Poorman and Ramsay creeks. DEQ approved the permit in 2017 using the analysis from the 1992 Board of Health and Environmental Sciences decision.
Shortly thereafter, the Montana Environmental Information Center, Earthworks and Save Our Cabinets sued DEQ, saying, among other things, that DEQ had based its approval on a 25-year-old Board of Health and Environmental Sciences decision that was no longer valid, so DEQ should have done a separate analysis.
Both a Montana district court and the Montana Supreme Court agreed so the permit reverted to the 2006 version. Until now.
Hecla’s increased activity appears to have coincided with the retirement of former CEO Phillips Baker Jr. in May. Hecla and DEQ faced legal opposition regarding the Montanore and Rock Creek mines because of Baker’s past.
In 2018, DEQ found that Baker fit the description of a “bad actor” under the state Metal Mine Reclamation Act. The provision bars any mining company or company leader that defaults on their cleanup responsibilities from receiving any additional permits to mine in Montana. Baker had been the chief financial officer of Pegasus Gold Incorporated from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, Pegasus Gold declared bankruptcy without having reclaimed three cyanide heap leach gold mines in central and eastern Montana, so the expensive cleanup was left up to Montana taxpayers.
DEQ pursued three years of legal work against Baker under Governor Steve Bullock's administration but dropped its case in July 2021 after Greg Gianforte took office. But the bad actor law still complicated matters for DEQ. With Baker’s retirement, that hurdle is gone.
Bonnie Gestring, Earthworks Northwest Program director, said the plaintiff organizations planned to comment on the environmental assessment and proposed permit. The groups say the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and adjacent National Forest lands are braided by high-elevation streams that are among the purest waters in the lower 48 states.
They should be kept that way so they can continue to harbor vital populations of threatened bull trout as well as Westslope cutthroat trout and other sensitive, coldwater fish that face increasing threats due to climate change. The area also supports one of four grizzly bear populations in the Northern Rockies.
“The (2017) discharge permit would allow limits that had been approved decades prior and were far too lenient. We challenged those, saying those limits weren’t appropriate, and we prevailed,” Gestring said. “We still have the same objections that we always had. Libby Creek, the discharge point, is bull trout habitat. (The mine) has a very significant impact, given the size and the location being adjacent and underneath a wilderness area and in terms of impacts to grizzly bear and bull trout habitat.”
The DEQ Mining Division has issued a mining permit since the mouth of the tunnel is on private land. But the mine would extend below the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness so the Forest Service also has to grant a permit.
In September 2022, the Kootenai National Forest announced it would be preparing an environmental assessment of Hecla’s proposal to begin exploration, which would last four to five years, and asked for scoping comments. Helca must use Forest Service roads to access the site. The Forest Service environmental assessment has yet to be released.
To submit comments to DEQ, mail them to the DEQ Water Quality Division, Water Protection Bureau, P.O. Box 20090, Helena, MT 59620; or send an email to DEQWPBPublicComments@mt.gov.
Contact Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.
