Environmentalists will petition for new rules after mining appeal loss

Scott Sonner

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 2:28 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Environmentalists who lost a bid to block a mining company from dumping waste water into the Nevada desert say they'll petition the state to tighten up regulations on cyanide leach heaps.

"The reason we lost this case is the way the regulations are written. They are written with a loophole big enough to drive a large waste truck through," said Tom Myers, director of the Great Basin Mine Watch.

The Nevada Environmental Commission on Tuesday rejected an appeal by the environmental watchdog group and tribal officials who fear groundwater will be contaminated by draining the cyanide leach heap at the Wind Mountain Mine near Empire, Nev.

The commission concluded there are enough safeguards to keep the drainage from posing a health or environmental threat.

The commissioners said even if contaminants reached the groundwater, monitoring wells would alert regulators, who could then order the mining company to clean it up before real damage is done.

Myers said his group hasn't ruled out a lawsuit to challenge the commission's action, but most likely will concentrate its efforts on changing the regulations.

"There are several other facilities that are coming up that have similar issues where litigation may be more appropriate," he said.

Myers said under state standards, the draining is allowed if the state commission concludes the wastes won't degrade the groundwater.

"But it is an extremely subjective decision. We would have had to prove there was no doubt contamination would occur," Myers said.

"We believe the regulations do not reflect what the statute requires. We believe there is far too much flexibility given to the agency to make subjective decisions on this," he said.

"Our next step will be to petition for a rule-making so we have some standards the public can look at and trust that the industry is meeting them," he said.

The Wind Mountain Mine, now owned by Kinross Gold USA with international headquarters in Toronto, has been closed for eight years.

From 1989-92, the mine in the San Emidio Desert south of Empire extracted gold and silver by sprinkling cyanide over the heaps of low-grade ore in a mining and milling area of about 820 acres, a little more than a square mile.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management concluded, and the state agreed, that the groundwater is so deep beneath the ground - at least 600 feet - that there's little risk of the toxic materials reaching it.

Heap leach mining allows miners to recover microscopic particles of gold and silver by piling low-grade ore on plastic liners, then pouring cyanide over it to bind with the precious metals.

When the work is completed, the operators are required to rinse the piles to drain off and collect as much of the toxic materials as possible. But there's always some residue, and how much is safe is at the center of the dispute.

State regulators already have allowed 12 other heaps to be closed down in this fashion, but at 140 acres, Wind Mountain's heap is the largest.

There are 180 more heaps in the state that could be eligible for this method of closure, said Glenn Miller, executive director of the Great Basin Mine Watch.

Robert Gosik, vice president for environmental affairs at Kinross Gold's regional headquarters in Salt Lake City, said the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection put the drainage plan "under a microscope."

"Some environmental activists simply don't think that federal and state of Nevada environmental regulations go far enough," Gosik said.

"They are entitled to their opinion, but the fact of the matter is that the respective legislatures sought the advice and counsel of academicians, scientists, engineers, lawyers and regulators before concluding that the existing statutes would protect public health and the environment," he said.

"If people want to change the law, which is I think what these folks want to do, they should be talking to their legislators rather than asking the commission to stop a permit that clearly provides all the public and environmental protections required by the law," he said.