Contact: Eliot Hurwitz FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-3066 May 1, 1995
The United States and the state of Idaho announced an innovative settlement today that will clean up extensive contamination at the Blackbird Mine in central Idaho and restore critical habitat for the spring and summer chinook salmon. The agreement, with three large current and former mining companies, Noranda Mining, M.A. Hanna Co., and Alumet Corporation, resolves Superfund, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act claims.
The settlement is valued by the governments at more than $60 million. Under its terms, the companies have agreed to spend millions of dollars to clean up mine wastes, treat contaminated water, and reimburse the federal and state agencies for damage assessment costs and past and future response costs.
Since the early 1950s, mining activities at the Blackbird Mine have resulted in extensive ground and surface water contamination by copper, cobalt and other heavy metals. These activities are blamed for the contamination of 26 miles of the Panther Creek watershed, which flows into the Salmon River. Another casualty has been the threatened spring/summer chinook salmon; the population has virtually disappeared from Panther Creek, a once viable spawning and rearing habitat.
Today's settlement is the end of a twelve-year lawsuit, initiated in 1983 by the state of Idaho. The United States' claims were filed in 1993 by the Justice Department on behalf of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Under the agreement, to be filed later today in the U.S. District Court in Idaho, the companies will:
- clean up the mine site in accordance with a cleanup program to be selected by EPA in consultation with the state of Idaho;
- make cash payments of over $7.5 million for past damages assessment costs and past response costs, and to fund future hatchery releases of salmon; and
- implement an innovative plan developed by NOAA, the Forest Service and the state of Idaho to restore and maintain habitat in the affected streams and to reintroduce the salmon, as well as paying trustee oversight costs of up to $2 million.
"For over half a century, contamination from the Blackbird Mine has resulted in the elimination of the chinook salmon and degraded the environment," said Lois Shiffer, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. "However, today's settlement -- founded in a federal and state partnership and with great cooperation from these companies -- marks a time to rebuild. With such cooperation, I am very optimistic that we can finish the job that we started, to clean up the Panther Creek watershed."
"This settlement is an example of what can happen when parties sit down, cooperate and seek results," said Dale Bosworth, U.S. Forest Service Intermountain Region regional forester. "Having work begin on on-site restoration of the mine site and off-site salmon habitat is critical to restoring spring and summer chinook salmon runs in Panther Creek. This settlement is good for the taxpayer, the public land user and the environment."
"The Biological Restoration and Compensation Program culminates a terrific effort by NOAA, the Forest Service, the state of Idaho, and the mining companies to design a streamlined program to fix injured national resources, including the threatened chinook salmon, said Douglas K. Hall, NOAA's deputy administrator. Furthermore, this program supports NOAA's salmon recovery efforts under the Endangered Species Act. We are pleased with the Blackbird Mine restoration program and hope it acts as a blueprint for future cooperation in natural resource restoration both with the states and private parties."
The Blackbird Mine, currently inactive, is located about 20 miles from Salmon, Idaho, near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Since the 1800s, mining companies have extracted gold, copper, cobalt and other ores from the mine. By the 1960s, contamination from the mine had decimated the spring/summer chinook salmon run and the resident fishery in Panther Creek and some of its tributaries.
In stark contrast to the scenic vistas of the national forest and the nearby wilderness, the landscape of the Blackbird Mine is marred by 3.8 million tons of waste rock, two million tons of tailings and a 10.5 acre unreclaimed open pit. The entire mountain top has been removed and more than 10 miles of underground workings honeycomb the mountain. Mine tailings and waste rock are distributed over 128 acres of the mine site and surrounding national forest area. Evidence of the pollution problem is readily apparent in Bucktail Creek, a tributary of Panther Creek, where the levels of copper turn the water and rocks an unnatural blue.
The settlement was achieved through a joint effort by the state of Idaho, the Department of Justice, NOAA, the U.S. Forest Service and EPA, as well as laudable cooperation by the settling defendants. The consent order, which lays out the terms of the settlement, will be lodged with the court today for a 30-day comment period.