MEIC Joins Tribes in Suit over Zortman/Landusky Cleanup

MEIC has joined the Fort Belknap Community Council and others in a legal challenge to the final reclamation plan selected by the State and U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the Zortman/Landusky mining complex. The massive cyanide heap-leach open-pit gold mines were operated on the southern edge of the Ft. Belknap Reservation by the now-bankrupt Pegasus Gold Corp.

An environmental impact statement that analyzed various alternatives for reclamation concluded that the most protective plan would cost $63.5 million—$33.5 million more than the reclamation performance bond posted by Pegasus, which the State has cashed.

But instead of adopting the best plan identified in the EIS, the agencies issued a contingent decision stating that the best plan will be implemented only if Congress comes up with the additional $33.5 million. If that fails, then a clearly inadequate plan will be executed.

MEIC and the other plaintiffs argue that such a scheme is not legal under either the reclamation law or the Montana constitution. It also violates a recent court ruling in a suit over reclamation of the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall that said cost cannot be the overriding factor in choosing a reclamation plan. That ruling stated that the most environmentally protective and feasible method of reclaiming a mine must be adopted.

(For maps, images, and history of the mines, click here to download a pdf file from the Montana Bureau of Land Management.)