State Department of Ecology Issues final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for Proposed Buckhorn Mine

September 15, 2006

from Okanogan Highlands Alliance

Six years after the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) pulled the plug on a contentious open-pit, cyanide-leach gold mine in the Okanogan Highlands, Ecology is giving approval to another fatally flawed plan to mine gold on Buckhorn Mountain in north central Washington. The three underground shafts proposed to mine the gold would cause a permanent shift in the way water flows off the mountain adversely affecting people with senior water rights and have the potential to pollute groundwater for generations to come.

"Once again the Department of Ecology has bounced that rubber stamp for the proposed Buckhorn Mine." says David Kliegman, director of the Okanogan Highlands Alliance, "Once again OHA will have to do the job that Ecology fails to do: OHA will stand up to multinational mining interests and protect the environment."

The SEIS fails to mitigate this permanent hydrologic shift that would cause water currently flowing down Myers Creek to flow down Toroda Creek. Ecology proposes holding a bond to pump and treat groundwater for ten years but the contamination that would likely develop could last much longer. These were some of the fatal flaws of the previous mine proposal and they have potential to derail this one also.

OHA has consistently objected to Ecology "supplementing" the failed Crown Jewel open-pit mine proposal and that impacts should instead be documented in a stand alone EIS. The Crown Jewel Proposal was rejected in January 2000 when the Pollution Control Hearings Board could not be assured that water quality and senior water rights would be protected.

"The SEIS fails to consider the impacts of the proposed mine which would cause groundwater contamination and long-term or permanent drying up of wetlands and streams." Kliegman continues, "The SEIS fails to minimize harm to the public interest by offering adequate mitigation for the impacts it has identified let alone the impacts that have not even been considered."

The Okanogan Highlands Alliance is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to educating the public about the environmental threats of large-scale mining.

Contact: David Kliegman
Okanogan Highlands Alliance
PO Box 163
Tonasket, WA 98855
509-485-3361
kliegoha@televar.com
http://www.okanoganhighlandsalliance.org