While underground mining reduces the impacts when compared to the previously proposed open pit, significant water quality and quantity issues remain.

In April 2009, the first annual meeting took place, and OHA, as well as many of the agencies in attendance, expressed concern regarding the completeness and organization of the memos that were presented. Because of the incompleteness and poor organization of last year’s reporting and lack of time, we never actually got to the point during the annual meeting of discussing the adequacy of the plans or if modifications may be needed.

Since that time OHA has done an extensive review of the plans to develop a comprehensive matrix of annual reporting requirements and their degree of completion for 2008. After reviewing the memos and reports, in cooperation with Kinross, OHA finds the 2008 annual reporting incomplete and lacking basic foundational data needed to analyze the mine’s impacts or the accuracy of model predictions. OHA's analysis shows that the reporting does not meet the requirements of the plans.