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Greater Yellowstone Coalition Petitions Federal Agencies to Investigate Eight Phosphate Mines in Eastern Idaho

Posted on: May 18, 2007

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) submitted petitions this week to the EPA Regional Administrator and the Chief of the US Forest Service asking for investigation of eight phosphate mines in Southeastern Idaho where the release of hazardous substances, particularly selenium, is threatening human health and the environment. According to the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund, the public can petition the agencies to assess hazards to human health and the environment associated with the release of hazardous substances. Since the 1990s, state and federal agencies have known that waste rock dumps at the former phosphate mines have been releasing toxic quantities of selenium to soil, water and groundwater in and around the sites.

“The agencies have been dragging their feet for years. The imminent threat of these sites is clear and well-documented. We hope these petitions will light a fire under these agencies to finally get cleanup under way,” says Marv Hoyt of the GYC.

In 2002, an area-wide study was conducted by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality that identified selenium contamination at 19 phosphate mines, including the eight mine sites that are the subject of the petitions. The area wide study, however, only assessed general risks to the region and did not contain any specific assessments of the threats posed by individual mines. It also did not examine groundwater at the mine sites, despite the fact that contaminated groundwater is suspected at all of the phosphate mine sites in the region. No further study or investigation of the contaminated sites has occurred since the 2002 study.

Under the Superfund program it is the responsibility of the company or companies that create the toxic hazard to clean up the site. The EPA oversees the process to assure compliance with the law and that federal standards are met. When superfund sites occur on land owned by the US Forest Service, the US Forest Service has the responsibility to oversee the Superfund process.

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition exercised its right to petition EPA and the Forest Service because action has been stalled at the Superfund sites for years. According to Superfund, the agencies must conduct a preliminary assessment of the hazards posed by each of the eight sites within a year or explain why an assessment is not necessary.

Even though action has been stalled on investigation and clean up of the superfund sites, there has been no delay by agencies in approving new mine expansions. The Smoky Canyon Mine is currently in the final stages of review for a large expansion. The new plan is pushing forward even as significant new pollution occurs at the mine. South Sage Creek, targeted for use in the new plan to dilute anticipated new pollution, has itself recently become contaminated with selenium from underground water flows. In addition, recent efforts by Simplot to clean up existing pollution at the Smoky Canyon Mine have failed. The mining company’s expensive pipe, which was installed last fall to re-route Pole Creek around toxic waste rock piles, has not been effective in reducing the flow of high levels of selenium into Pole Creek.

It is clear that the expansion plans must be delayed until further investigation and clean up occurs. This is the reason the GYC has asked the federal EPA and Forest Service to investigate these mines, assess the threats posed by each mine, and assure the public that successful clean up by the companies will get under way.

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About Dave Langston

Outdoor writer Dave Langston resides in Chubbuck. He grew up in the Midwest and south fishing and hunting across the country.

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