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Settlement Reached in OHA’s Clean Water Act Suit Against Mining Companies

Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) has reached a settlement with Crown Resources and Kinross Gold USA to resolve the Clean Water Act citizen suit brought by OHA in 2020 over alleged ongoing Clean Water Act discharge permit violations at and near the Buckhorn Mine. 

With the agreement, the mining companies will take actions to improve water quality and promote permit compliance, including investigations of the sources, fate, and transport of pollutants at and near the mine site. 

After nearly five years of litigation and settlement talks, OHA made a practical decision to enter into a settlement agreement that gets the companies working toward actions that will increase protection of the environment.

The settlement includes a process by which Crown will work with OHA to incorporate information from these investigations, as well as other sources, into a corrective action plan for the mine site. This means that Crown will meet regularly with OHA, share data and information with OHA, and work together to develop a corrective action plan for the Buckhorn Mine. 

The agreement gives OHA a seat at the table and allows us to continue our decades-long commitment to independent oversight and analysis. With access to the information and data from investigations, OHA will be able to conduct analyses, help develop a remediation process, follow any changes to water quality moving forward, and sound the alarm when action should be taken.  

OHA, represented by Kampmeier & Knutsen, PLLC,  filed its Clean Water Act citizen suit against Crown Resources, and a parent company, Kinross Gold USA in April 2020 because of alleged ongoing violations of Crown’s Clean Water Act discharge permit for the Buckhorn Mine. Washington State’s Attorney General filed a similar suit against the mining companies in May 2020. The suits were consolidated in June 2020, but Washington State is not a party to the settlement between OHA and the mining companies and their lawsuit is ongoing.

Topographic Survey Shows Progress at Triple Creek

OHA partners with US Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct topographic surveys of the stream channel and banks to measure (even small) changes in elevation of the creek bed and shifts in the streambanks over time. The topographic surveys show how silt, sand, and gravels have accumulated, scoured, and moved throughout the project reach as the force of water carries the sediment downstream, recruits it from the streambanks, and deposits it on the creek bed. 

Graph above shows topographic survey (elevation data) plotted versus the relative distance in the thalweg of the stream. Points A-D on the graph are comparable to those points on the map below.
Aerial view (above) of Triple Creek Project area. Cooler colors signify aggradation and warmer colors signify erosion. Both processes are critical to the restoration of this stream and wetland.
The aerial view above shows that the reach is significantly longer and more sinuous now than it was before the project started.

Progress By The Numbers: 

  • 3800 yd3 = 271 dump trucks of sediment deposited in the reach!
  • 1500 yd3 = 107 dump trucks of sediment eroded in the reach!
  • 5300 yd3 = 378 dump trucks of sediment shifted within the reach!
  • 2300 yd3 = 164 dump trucks of sediment carried from outside the project area and deposited in the reach!

Adamera Exploration Drilling Comments Needed

Adamera is an exploration company that seeks to develop mining prospects on Buckhorn Mountain near the Buckhorn Mine. They have acquired the mining claims from Kinross in the 9600 acres of public land surrounding the Buckhorn Mine, as well as information and data related to Kinross exploration efforts. Adamera has submitted Notices of Operations to the BLM Wenatchee Field office and to the Colville National Forest for exploration core drilling. Adamera seeks to conduct their exploration under rules that: a) allow exploratory drilling without a reclamation permit if less than one acre of area within eight acres is disturbed through exploration drilling and, b) related to a Categorical Exclusion for exploratory mining activities of less than one year.

OHA is very concerned that the exploration drilling proposed by Adamera, combined with the ongoing pollution generated by the Buckhorn Mine, would have significant environmental impacts. The companies should be required to collect baseline water quality data before engaging in potentially polluting exploration activities. They should also analyze the cumulative impacts associated with the proximity of the exploration to the polluted water at the Buckhorn Mine site, as well as impacts from multiple (Forest Service and BLM, so far) exploration projects as part of a more extensive environmental review. OHA encourages the state and federal agencies to coordinate on this issue, to engage in a full interagency environmental review process, and to require the mining companies to collect baseline data on the areas that they seek to explore. For more information including the scoping notice, map and plan of operations, see below. OHA encourages public participation in decisions involving the integrity, sustainability,and prosperity of our community and the environment.

Please submit comments to the U.S. Forest Service by September 5, 2022. Direct comments, questions, or concerns to Minerals Administrator, Anna Lowell, at anna.lowell@usda.gov or 509-684-7266.

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