an OHBC release--In July 2003, Crown Resources submitted a new proposal for a gold mine in the heart of Buckhorn Mountain large cyanide leach mill and tailings pond impoundment in Beaver Canyon. Faced with overwhelming opposition to the unacceptable impacts to Beaver Canyon, Crown eliminated the proposed mill and tailings dump and its transportation plans in Beaver Canyon.
Crown Resources submitted an Amended Plan of Operation to the regulatory agencies on February 9, 2004. The new Plan would have a similar underground mine as Crown's previous proposal, but the ore would be transported down Marias Creek Road to Echo Bay Minerals, Key Mill near Republic. Agency officials have opened a public comment period between April 2 and May 17, 2004 on this new proposal. Once again, changes to the proposal will be based on your comments.

We suggest you mail your written comments in a water bottle (if not our Water More Precious than Gold bottle, then any water bottle-- because ALL clean water is precious!) A half-liter bottle mails within the US for 60 cents.

To download the Amended Plan of Operations of February 9, 2004 go to either
the WA Dept. of Ecology's Buckhorn Mt. Info page or The US Forest Service's Bulletin Board
There are still significant issues that will need to be addressed. The Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) will post a summary of the new plan online soon, and we will link you there. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from this February's Buckhorn Bulletin with some info on Echo Bay, followed by a DOE informational release inviting comment.

Buckhorn Bulletin, Feb. 2004

Who is Echo Bay?
Echo Bay Minerals Company operates a gold and silver mining and milling operation (Kettle River Project) in Ferry County near the town of Republic, Washington. The Project started in 1989. It originally included the Key Mill and tailings disposal facility, and the Overlook and Kettle underground mine sites. Since that time three additional mines have gone into production: the Key Project (two adjacent open pits), and the Lamefoot and K2 mines (both underground). Currently the Overlook, Kettle, Key Project, and Lamefoot mine sites are in the process of, or have completed, reclamation. In the fall of 2002 production at the K2 mine was suspended. In January 2004 mining was begun from the Emanuel Creek deposit (adjacent to K2) about 20 miles from the Key Mill. During operation ore is trucked from the mine sites to the Key Mill for processing. In the milling process the ore is first crushed, then mixed with water and pulverized to form a slurry. This ore slurry is then mixed with a cyanide solution and pumped through a series of tanks where the gold is leached from the ore. The tailings (slurry remaining from the cyanide leaching process) is pumped to a 66 surface acre lined tailings pond. In the past about 500,000 to 550,000 tons of ore were processed per year. Kinross Gold Corporation purchased Echo Bay in it’s entirety in May 2002.

Echo Bay’s Water Quality Problem
Ground water quality standards are meant to protect background water quality to the extent practical, rather than allowing ground water quality to slip below certain criteria. Since wells K2-2, TP-1, TP-2, KW-1A, and LF-12 at the K2 Mine, Key Project and Key Mill do not meet groundwater standards and have negative trends, Washington State Department of Ecology will give Echo Bay “Interim” standards for the next 4 years. Within a year Echo Bay will have to submit a hydrogeologic/engineering report updating and evaluating “All Known Available and Reasonable methods of prevention, control and Treatment” (AKART) to Ecology for sources contributing pollutants that degrade ground water quality. They will have two years to implement the AKART measures and remediation alternatives, and then another year to evaluate the results.

Key Mill Tailings Pond - Increases Over Time
The tailings pond was originally constructed in 1989 with a single VLDPE (very low density polyethylene) liner. This first phase created a 60 acre impoundment with a dike height of 150 feet (tailings storage capacity of 2.49 million tons). An underdrain system was placed beneath the pond to intercept groundwater and to detect any leaks in the liner system. Water collected by the underdrain is returned to the impoundment. In 1992 the pond was expanded by adding a second 30 acre impoundment adjacent to the original. The second phase was lined with a VLDPE liner on top of a geosynthetic clay liner. An underdrain was also placed beneath this expansion. This addition created a storage capacity of 3.62 million tons of tailings. Then in 1995 the embankment was raised 25 feet around the two ponds creating a single impoundment, resulting in a 175-foot-high embankment and a storage capacity of 6.76 million tons. Twelve feet were added to the interior portions of the tailings dam (an upstream lift) in the fall of 2001. This expansion increased the tailings storage by 1.7 million tons (to a total of 8.5 million tons). The impoundment footprint increased by about 3 acres (to 94 total acres). Cyanide levels in the tailings pond pose a risk to migratory waterfowl.

Key Mill and Tailings Impoundment
Two local aquifers were identified at the Key Mill site prior to construction of the tailings pond. Both aquifers, as well as nearby seeps along the banks of the North Fork of the Sanpoil River, went dry due to mill construction. This was likely due to a loss of recharge to the area, and the lack of groundwater collecting beneath the tailings pond. Monitoring wells TP-1 and TP-2 were installed in October 1991. Water quality from all wells (TP-1, TP-2, and TP-3) show an increasing trend for nitrates, total dissolved solids (TDS), magnesium, calcium, alkalinity, and sulfate concentrations. Well TP-1 (located closest to mill facilities) has regularly exceeded ground water quality criteria for TDS and periodically for nitrates. Water quality from well TP-2 has exceeded criteria for TDS. Ground water quality results from well TP-3 have met applicable criteria.

Echo Bay’s Satellite Mines

Key Project

Lamefoot Mine

K2 Mine

Overlook Mine

And here is the email the Department of Ecology sent out on April 1, 2004:

Scoping Re-Initiated: On September 5, 2003, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (FS), released a request for comments regarding the scope of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to address the Buckhorn Mountain Project proposal. Subsequent to the completion of that scoping process, Ecology and FS received an Amended Plan of Operations from the applicant, Crown Resources Corporation, dated February 9, 2004. After review and evaluation of the Amended Plan of Operations, Ecology and FS determined that the amended proposal differs sufficiently from the original proposal with respect to its milling and tailings disposal provisions to warrant re-initiation of the scoping process.

Note: All comments received during the scoping process on the original proposal (September 5, 2003 through December 4, 2003) will be considered by Ecology and FS in the development of the scope of the SEIS.

Request for Comments: Ecology and FS are requesting comments regarding the scope of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to address the amended Buckhorn Mountain Project proposal. The SEIS will be a combined National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) document and will supplement the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Crown Jewel Mine (January 1997) prepared for a previous mining proposal on Buckhorn Mountain. The SEIS will fulfill and be consistent with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations, and the 1989 Okanogan National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended.

Note: There is no requirement or need for parties to resubmit comments that were submitted during the previous scoping process (September 5, 2003 through December 4, 2003).

Description of Proposal: The amended Buckhorn Mountain Project proposal involves the development of an underground gold mine in Okanogan County, Washington; transportation of the mined ore by truck to the Echo Bay Mineral Corporation's (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kinross Corporation) Kettle River Mill located near Republic in Ferry County; and ore milling and tailings disposal at the Kettle River Mill (See Figure 1).

The original proposal involved development of a new milling and tailings disposal facility at the Dry Gulch site near Chesaw in Okanogan County. The development of a new facility is no longer an element of the Amended Plan of Operations; although it may continue to be evaluated as an alternative to the Kettle River Mill for the milling and tailings disposal elements of the project.

The proponent's Amended Plan of Operations may be viewed on-line here. The project proposal is described in more detail below in the Background section.

Proponent: Crown Resources Corporation

Location of Proposal: The Buckhorn Mountain Project proposal consists of development of an underground gold mine on Buckhorn Mountain approximately 3.5 air miles east of Chesaw, Washington, in Sections 24 and 25, Township 40 N., Range 30 E., W.M. The affected portion of Buckhorn Mountain is located approximately 21 miles east of Oroville, Washington, and 3.5 miles south of the Canadian border.

Milling of ore and tailings disposal would occur at the Kinross Corporation's Kettle River Mill located approximately eight miles east of Republic, Washington, in Section 26, Township 37 N., Range 33 E., W.M.

The proposal also identifies a quarry that is intended to be used as a source of backfill materials for the mine. The quarry is located approximately one mile west of Curlew on the south side of West Kettle River Road in Sections 14 and 15, Township 39 N., Range 33 E., W.M.

Lead and Cooperating Agencies: Ecology and the FS will be joint lead agencies in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.5 (b), and are responsible for preparation of the SEIS. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources will be a cooperating agency in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.6. Additional cooperating agencies may be identified as the project proceeds.

Possible Alternatives: The Crown Jewel Mine FEIS analyzed a reasonable range of alternatives. Some aspects of the new underground mine proposal differ from the underground mine alternative presented in the Crown Jewel Mine FEIS, although a number of components remain the same. Because a reasonable range of alternatives was established in the preceding FEIS, additional alternatives will be limited to alternative components to the underground mining/milling/tailings disposal/supply and haul route operations proposed by Crown Resources Corporation and will be based on the response to scoping.

Preliminary Issues Identified by the FS: A number of issues were identified in the Crown Jewel Mine FEIS. The major issues identified concerned water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat impacts, increased traffic, the use of toxic materials, extraction impacts, potential for spills, the effects on the visual quality of the area, and social/economic impacts. Similar issues are proposed to be addressed in the SEIS.

Preliminary Issues Identified by Ecology: In addition to the preliminary issues identified by the FS, Ecology has identified the following areas for discussion in the SEIS:

Underground mine and associated surface facilities