Groundwater contamination no problem for Idaho miners

[pscot]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6600ap_id_phosphate_groundwater.html

BOISE, Idaho -- Monsanto Co., Agrium Inc., and J.R. Simplot Co. will be able to mine phosphate without being forced to restore groundwater beneath their operations to its natural condition, according to a new rule awaiting approval by the 2009 Legislature.

The rule is backed by industry but opposed by environmentalists including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Idaho Conservation League, who say it gives mining companies near the Idaho-Wyoming border license to pollute forever.

It stops short of a 2007 draft proposal developed by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality but never formalized. That would have required companies to clean up groundwater below their mines within eight years of ceasing activities.

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Justin Hayes, with the Idaho Conservation League, contends the state agency "caved in" to industry pressure. Environmental groups are fearful of mining pollution in eastern Idaho, especially after at least four horses and hundreds of sheep died in the late 1990s after drinking selenium-contaminated water from defunct phosphate mines and their waste piles near Soda Springs.

"By its very nature, groundwater doesn't stay in one place," Hayes said. "An aquifer is recharged by rain and snow water, then it moves somewhere else. Aquifers are in motion. Eventually, the contamination is going to move off site." (more)

[Cleita]

1. That's so sad.

I know the Couer d' Alene tribe has been fighting the Montana and Idaho mining companies because their runoff is polluting Lake Couer d' Alene. They were succeeding until Bush got into office.

[pscot]

2. I keep hearing that the West is changing

but it sure seems like the same old same old still applies.

[Muttocracy]

3. So no public drinking water use in that area? If so, I'm pretty sure US EPA can step in

You know, when we have a real US EPA again.

Oh, the comments at the end (contamination is not an issue, comparing a septic system to contaminating an entire aquifer) are burningly dumb - gah!!!

[pscot]

4. Morons rule

n/t