June 15,1999

Testimony to Senate Subcommittee re: Crown Jewel

 OHA's Dave Kliegman testifies to Senate subcommittee,

(Here is the oral testimony David presented to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Public Lands Management regarding the proposed Crown Jewel Mine on June 15. Senator Larry Craig basically went through the motions, so he can say that he had a hearing on the subject. Essentially he can attempt to attach a rider to an Interior Appropriations Bill this summer to get rid of the millsite limitation of the 1872 Mining Law. This is what Slade Gorton was unable to do with his rider which exempted Battle Mountain Gold Company from the law.)

Good afternoon Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is David Kliegman, my family and I have lived in the Okanogan Highlands, near the site of the proposed mine for nearly 20 years. As I learned about the implications of this mine proposal, I was compelled to get involved. I didnít know at the time the level of personal commitment it would take to prevent a powerful multi-national corporation from simply rolling over our highland hills.

I am now director of Okanogan Highlands Alliance, a local public interest organization, with statewide and national membership. After over eight years of extensive consultation and study of the legal and technical aspects of the proposed Crown Jewel mine, we and other conservation groups, have concluded that the risk to public health, safety, and the environment is neither worth the risk or legal.

Battle Mountain Gold Co. has consistently overwhelmed underfunded regulatory agencies and exerted political pressure to obtain agency management approvals over staff objections. Washington State Dept. of Ecologyís management failed to adopt the permit requirements recommended by staff, include treatment for predicted water quality problems from seepage under the waste rock. The company threatened to sue Ecology if the permit was delayed any further, even though much of the delay was caused by the companies slowness to provide necessary documentation.

The water quality permit, now under appeal, does not assure that water quality standards will be met. To the contrary, it states that the mine is predicted to violate water quality standards.

In addition, BMGís water rights would violate the senior rights of downstream water users. New water rights in the basin have been denied due to over allocation since the 50ís. The open pit would permanently change the hydrology of the area. BMGís approach to augment depleted streams with a Rube Goldberg like contraption that would discharge contaminated pit-lake water into depleted streams.

If this mine proposal could have passed all the laws and permit regulations, it would have gone forward long ago. But BMG has continually tried to get by with the minimum environmental protection. BMG has used wealth and influence to access the political process and gain exceptions from the laws. If BMG wants to develop a mine then it must pass legal scrutiny, not receive special favors and exemptions from the law.

The Forest Services approval of the mine was premised on the fact that BMG had valid mining claims. It was clearly stated that the approval should in no way be construed as an implicit approval of their claims. For BMG to have progressed as it did was a miscalculation and should not be at the expense of the American people and local residents. BMGís plan was flagrantly over the legal millsite limit.

The incredible beauty of the Okanogan Highlands has always attracted people to this area. Even though the local resource extraction industries have been declining, the overall growth in the economy reinforces the demand for the aesthetic and recreational resources that the natural environment offers. The Crown Jewel mine would blast off the top of one of the highest mountains in the picturesque Okanogan Highlands and leave a toxic pit lake in the place of five clean, healthy, headwater steams. It would also dump 100 acres of tailings 250 feet deep behind an earthen dam on top of one of those creeks.

The Okanogan Highlands Alliance is working with community members to create a model for sustainable economic development. A case in point is this bottled water. The proposed gold mine would use over 2,000 gallons of clean water for every ounce of gold it produced. The economics are simple, as the demand for and the cost of water is on the rise, gold prices are steadily falling. Even at $1 per gallon pure water is more precious than gold. On behalf of the Okanogan Highlands Alliance, I implore you to consider that one of the most valuable things we could leave our children and future generations is a clean and healthy environment.

For eigth years we played by the rules. For eight years we followed the public process to fight this ill-advised mine proposal.

Now BMG doesn't like the rules.

BMG liked the rules well enough when it used them to extort 65 million dollars from the American taxpayers not to mine the New World Mine, outside Yellowstone National Park.

But now BMG doesn't like the rules. So, instead of working through theprocess, instead of challenging the validity of the rules in court, they went and changed the rules to suit themselves.

Please put this right. End special exemptions for BMG. End special favors for the mining industry.

Thank you. For the oppurtunity to testify.

David Kliegman

for more info:

Okanogan Highlands Alliance PO Box 163 Tonasket, WA 98855

phone/fax 509/485-3361 / email: kliegoha@televar.com / website: http://www.televar.com/~kliegoha

 "Pure water is more precious than gold!"