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Monitoring Overview

A summary of OHA's mine monitoring efforts

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Buckhorn Mine Violates Water Quality Permit

On July 16, 2012, the Buckhorn Mine was fined $395,000 for water quality violations. Click here for the Department of Ecology News Release

The largest part of Ecology’s July 2012 penalty was issued for failing to capture and treat mine contaminants for 94 days, thereby violating the NPDES permit. According to OHA’s analysis, the capture zone has been violated since July 2008, for a total of more than 1,640 days.

If a capture zone is not maintained, mine water can enter the groundwater system without treatment. Changes in water quality in stations downgradient of the mine indicate that the hydraulic containment system provided by the mine (capture zone) is not fully effective in containing mine water. Water quality monitoring data for South Fork Bolster Creek station SW-14 shows elevated concentrations of nitrite plus nitrate above background values in every sample collected since July 2008, which demonstrates that Crown has failed to maintain a capture zone on the west side of Buckhorn Mountain. The NPDES strictly forbids any discharges other than those that are permitted and there is no permit to discharge pollutants into Bolster Creek.

Nitrates Bolster Graph 3-2013

Nitrates (Nitrite plus Nitrate, mg/l as Nitrogen) at the SW-14 monitoring

point in the South Fork of Bolster Creek are significantly above baseline,

indicating escape of contaminants outside the capture zone.

For more information, please refer to the Summer 2012 and the Winter 2013 Buckhorn Bulletins.

This ecologically important wetland area is located in the headwaters of South Fork Bolster Creek, near the monitoring point where ongoing elevated concentrations of mine-related pollutants have been found in surface water, indicating a failed capture zone.

Crown Denies Responsibility for Water Problems...

Appeal of Penalty Postponed Until November 2013

The mining company appealed Ecology’s Penalty for permit violations at the Buckhorn Mine, denying responsibility for causing the Gold Bowl landslide and for failure of the mine’s capture zone. Crown challenges the amount of the penalties as too high.

Despite the thorough documentation of slope stability problems below treated water discharge locations, and water quality problems below the waste rock piles, the company denies responsibility.

The Buckhorn Mine Adaptive Management Plan (AMP) for Water Quality Changes Due to Mining clearly states, “Mitigation elements incorporated into the Buckhorn Mt. Project to protect surface water and groundwater quality include: Containment of mine water within the mine as a result of the capture zone that develops surrounding the underground mine and dewatering wells.”

There is not an exception written into the language of the mine plans allowing for some of the contaminants to escape the capture zone. All contaminated water emanating from the mine should be captured. The monitoring program laid out in the AMP clearly aims “to determine… whether the mine and dewatering wells are creating a capture zone to contain seepage from the mine, development rock and ore stockpiles.” The plan does not call for partial containment of seepage. Based on the AMP, OHA has an expectation that Crown Resources will maintain a separation between contaminants generated from the Buckhorn Mine and the environment; however, contaminants are emanating beyond the footprint of the mine.

Ecology and Crown/Kinross agreed to postpone the hearing of Crown’s challenge of the penalty. Ecology’s reasoning is that given limited staff time, it is preoccupied with writing a new permit and trying to establish safeguards to limit the coming spring snow melt from further contaminating Gold Bowl Creek, as it has every year since the mine began operating. The mining company is dragging the process out, continuing to deny responsibility for the slope failure and the pollution of Gold Bowl Creek, wasting further valuable time and money that could be spent on improvements.

As soon as Ecology issued the penalties last July, Kinross reneged on its agreement to fund Ecology’s monitoring program and staff. This action left the agency in the lurch, since they had been negotiating the cost recovery for months and had an agreement, just awaiting signatures. This is a textbook example of why, when dealing with a mining company, all agreements must be in writing. The Crown/Kinross denial of causing the landslide and contamination in nearby streams is disingenuous and the case should be heard ASAP.

BuckhornMtnChesaw_GoogleEarth

Buckhorn Mountain (center) and the Chesaw Valley (upper left) as seen from space (Google Earth images)

NPDES Permit Up for Renewal

The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a provision of the Clean Water Act that establishes the requirements for discharge of pollutants into the environment. Any “point source” discharge must have a permit. Kinross/Crown must dewater Buckhorn Mountain in order to mine. The Kinross NPDES permit, WA-005243-4, was issued November 2007 and expired in October 2012, and was initially administratively extended until April 30, 2013. Changes to the renewed NPDES permit provide an opportunity for Ecology to clarify ambiguities and increase monitoring.

On February 22nd, 2013, Ecology met with Kinross and their attorneys and agreed to another administrative extension of the Buckhorn Mine’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit. The draft renewal permit that was supposed to be ready for public input on March 1st will not be available to the public until June 2013; comments will be solicited at that time. We are told that at least some of the provisions of the draft permit will be implemented by an administrative order in April 2013.

OHA obtained a copy of the draft NPDES that had been shared with the mining company and their attorneys. Provisions of the draft permit include clarification of some key definitions including: capture zone, recharge, and baseline water quality. Ecology will allow up to 100gpm discharge of treated mine water into Gold Bowl Creek, as long as turbidity does not exceed 5ntu. At this point, the permit raises the permitted water quality standards for treated mine water discharge to what the facility can produce, instead of maintaining the minimum state standard.

The words “at this point” are used to describe the dynamic situation due to Ecology’s ongoing negotiations with the mining company. Influencing the process is the presence of Jay Manning, of Cascade Law Group, a former Director of the Department of Ecology and more recently Christine Gregoire chief of staff, who currently works on the permit process for the mining company. The “revolving door” of personnel between roles as regulators and the industries affected by the regulation can be fraught with conflicts of interest. Mr. Manning was previously an Assistant Attorney General who worked on defending permits for the failed open pit mine. The influence and contacts provided by ex-government officials are especially attractive to industry and can mean substantial monetary rewards.

Water Year 2010

The annual coordination meeting to discuss Buckhorn Mine’s Water Year 2010 data took place at the Eagle Cliff Grange on the bank of the Kettle River on March 15th, 2011. Annual monitoring reports were submitted to the agencies a few weeks prior to the meeting. The purpose of the annual meeting is to review a summary of the previous year’s monitoring data, discuss the adequacy of monitoring plans and recommend any modifications that might be needed. OHA opened the meeting with a presentation of our analysis of the monitoring data, and followed up with a presentation and the independent review by Ann Maest of Stratus Consulting, which laid out our concerns regarding the company’s analysis. OHA also raised concern over contaminated mine leakage and offered suggestions to address the issue... Read more

Water Year 2009

The 2009 annual reporting showed better organization and issues were, for the most part, addressed directly. Concerns remain regarding certain missing and faulty data and analysis, particularly with regard to meteorological and precipitation data. OHA and Kinross personnel continue to communicate on an ongoing basis about improvements. OHA continues to comprehensively scrutinize the monitoring of the mine... Read more

Water Year 2008

OHA found the 2008 annual reporting incomplete and lacking basic foundational data needed to analyze the mine’s impacts and to corroborate model predictions, and made numerous suggestions to improve the annual evaluation of the mine. In 2008, OHA completed an extensive review of the mine plans and developed a comprehensive matrix of annual reporting requirements to assess the degree to which the company satisfied the reporting requirements that year and presented the results to the Department of Ecology and Kinross. Kinross committed to improving the completeness and comprehensiveness of the reports for the Water Year 2009 annual meeting, and followed through with regard to the reporting framework. The mine has extensive monitoring requirements to ensure protection of the environment, and changes have been made since 2008 to coordinate the discussion of results and analysis. Read more

Since 1992, OHA has worked to maintain the integrity of water resources on Buckhorn Mountain, stopping development of an open pit gold mine in 2000 and appealing development of an underground mine proposed in 2002. Both proposals faced strong local opposition... Read more (History of OHA's Mine Monitoring on Buckhorn Mountain)

One of the major flaws in Ecology's SEIS is its reliance on adaptive management, or more accurately, a plan that is titled, "adaptive management," but in reality has poor mechanism to adapt to changing situations. It would be more accurately be characterized as a monitoring plan. Adaptive management should be an active systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by sequential learning from the outcomes of operational programs... Read more (Adaptive Management Background)