Ecology justifies permit approvals for Kinross's mine on the assumption that enough mitigation is provided to offset the impacts.

The Kinross/Crown Mitigation Plan & What It's For

• Kinross will keep the cows out of the water on their own property at the Pine Chee wetland where Bartroff Rd meets the Beaver Canyon Rd. Keeping the cows out is supposed to compensate for the groundwater drawdown at seeps and springs in the headwater of Bolster Ethel and Gold Creeks due to mine dewatering.
  
• Livestock exclusion and some restoration on Kinross's overgrazed property on Myers Creek near Canadian border. Kinross will relinquish stock water right. Long-term change in the groundwater flow away from Myers Creek.
  
• Up to 12 acres of the Leslie Ranch will not be irrigated during mining plus three years. Dewatering Buckhorn Mountain
  
• Ten Acres of alfalfa will be taken out of production after mining is over. Long-term reduced stream-flow in Myers Creek. (Note: cows would be moved to an upstream tributary)
  
• Four wildlife guzzlers in headwaters of Myers Creek tributaries. Long-term reduction in headwaters seeps and springs
  
• Discharge treated mine water Augment Nicholson and Maris Creek depletion. None for Bolster, Gold and Ethel Creeks Culvert Replacements Impacts to fish from water depletion and sedimentation.
  
• Plant 500 trees and shrubs on Marias creek. The sham is that this planting is on property that has not been grazed and is already fully vegetated.

"The ARMP focuses on preservation and limited enhancement of off-site resources, not on actual compensation for or replacement of lost resources.... Many of the resources proposed are already in existence, and are already protected by existing laws. Since these sites already provide some valuable function to aquatic resources, the additional protection of these resources as proposed in the ARMP provides no real compensation for the impacts from mining operations." -PCHB statement regarding BMG's mitigation for the proposed Crown Jewel Mine, January 2000 (ARMP is the Aquatic Resources Mitigation Plan)