The White House
The 1872 Mining Law—Set in Stone?

The Grand Canyon
A Grand Place to Mine?

Phoenix Golf Resort
Par for the Course

Joshua Tree National Park
Claims for the Price of a Campsite

Lake Mead
Gaming the System

Death Valley
Watch your Step!

Clear Lake
Clear Waters and Hidden Pollution

Rogue River
From Scenic to Superfund

Oregon Dunes
Mining the Beach—and the Bank

Berners Bay
Ode to Orwell

Lake Roosevelt
Radioactive Remains

Salmon River
Salmon and Cyanide

German Gulch
A River Ruined?

Yellowstone
The Price to Protect Old Faithful

South Pass Historic Landmark
History Hijacked

Crested Butte
Red Lady in Distress

Moab
Arches and Acres of Radioactive Waste

Red Mountain Pass
Checkerboard Landscape

Taos County
Private Reward at Public Risk

Sugartree Mountain
Mining in the Natural State

Lake Dorr
Mickey and Mining

U.S. Capitol

Berners Bay — Alaska

Ode to Orwell

Alaska’s Berners Bay is a prime recreation, hunting and fishing area, home to salmon, stellar sea lions and the central north Pacific humpback whale.  The National Marine Fisheries Service calls the bay “an aquatic resource of national importance.” But just above the Bay is the new Kensington mine that illustrates how dramatically mining has changed and how fiercely the mining industry has fought to be excluded from modern environmental rules.

The Kensington mine plans to produce as much or more mine waste in a 6-week period than was generated over a 40-year period of historic operations in the area. In 1998, the mine was granted a permit with a plan that drew praise from regulators, local environmentalists and fishermen. But Coeur Alaska abandoned that plan and proposed to put mill waste into Lower Slate Lake. After federal rules were changed to redefine mining waste as “fill,” a new permit was granted.

Local conservation groups challenged the decision and the circuit court ruled that the permit violated the Clean Water Act.  The company took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that even though disposal would kill all aquatic life in the lake, “mitigation” could take place after mining was completed: the lake bed would be sealed and Lower Slate Lake restocked. Justice David Souter called the reasoning “Orwellian.” But in June, a majority of the court disagreed.  It is now up to Congress or the Obama Administration to determine whether Kensington mine will be the nation’s first to get the legal green light to destroy a lake and a healthy ecosystem.

Side Trips:

Editorial Board, “One More Threat to Clean Water,” The New York Times, June 24, 2009.  

James Vicini, “Miner Coeur gets OK to dump waste into Alaska lake,” Reuters, June 22, 2009.

Michael Paulson, “Gorton's Maneuvers Spark Anger: He's Unrepentant about Saving Embattled Gold Mine,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 14, 1999.

National Mining Association, “EPA proposes excluding mining from PM regulation,” NMA Mining Week, January 20, 2006. (PDF)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste, “Mining Waste,” January 13, 2009.