Atlanta Open Pit Gold Mine
near Middle Fork of Boise River
Our Environmental Concerns to the fish, water shed, and our health
The danger to fish would involve this proposed open pit gold mine at Atlanta, Idaho that would use a heap-leach cyanide process to separate the gold from the crushed ore. The primary danger would be hauling, by truck, the cyanide, chlorine and Diesel fuel along a narrow mountainous road along the river.
The mining company, from Toronto, Canada, proposes to draw water from the Middle Fork of Boise River, yet they have no water rights to do so
(see http://www.atlantagoldeis.com/
and http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/news/news_releases/2-18Atlanta_mine.shtml
or call 208-373-4100 for more info).
The leach pads are lined with a special plastic liner. Unfortunately, these liners have always failed when used in these mining operations, spilling gallons of contaminants into the surface/ground water (see http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/mdaf.html for the history of the mining failures). If we loose these bull trout, there is no way the mining company could mitigate their loss.
If something happens, a common way to deal with large environmental failures for those big corporations could be to abondon the clean-up effort and pay the federal fine since it could be the less costly way out like Exxon-Mobil did in Alaska. Boise receives 22% of its drinking water from this drainage. Who would pay to remove these toxins from our water if there is a disaster? It would be us, the tax payers!
TU have been working with Idaho Conservation League who have been leading this fight to stop the mine.
The Riverkeeper Fly shop in Boise also has an update on their fishing report section of the web page, http://riverkeeperflyshop.com/fishing_reports.htm
Comments can be submitted to the US Forest Service Project Manager
Terry Hardy, Project Manager
1249 S. Vinnell Way, Suite 200
Boise, ID 83709
or by e-mail: comments-intermtn-boise@fs.fed.us.
updated on June 7, 2004
by Shigeru K Yokoyama