(Sierra Club volunteers explore site of proposed CuMo Mine in the Boise National Forest)
Boise, Idaho -- CuMo is at it again, and we need you to stand up for clean water in Idaho. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is holding public meetings on a proposed open-pit molybdenum mine a Canadian mining company wants to build on the Boise National Forest. If this project moves forward, it will threaten the Boise River Watershed with toxic mining pollution.
The CuMo Project has been mired in legal battles over the past several years. Since 2015, Federal Courts have twice sided with conservation groups and ruled that additional environmental analysis was required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). After the Pioneer fire burned through the area in 2017, courts required the USFS to conduct new baselines for sacajawea bitterroot, a rare flower found only in Idaho on a few locations on the Boise NF. This year the required analysis has been conducted and the US Forest Service has proposed giving Cumo the greenlight to begin exploratory drilling. If the current proposal moves forward, CuMo will build 13.3 miles of temporary roads in the watershed southeast of Garden Valley, and install 122 drilling pads that will take core samples in order prove what the company believes to be a massive deposit of molybdenum, copper, and silver in the area.
Please tell the USFS that additional environmental analysis is needed before exploratory drilling gets the green light! Comments accepted through February 22nd, 2019. Before allowing CuMo to move forward with exploratory drilling on the Boise National Forest, the U.S. Forest survey must conduct additional field surveys and consider ways to reduce the risk of landslides.
The latest Environmental Assessment acknowledges that wildfires recently burned through part of the project area with steep slopes which were already identified as a landslide hazard. As roots from the dead trees decay, the likelihood for landslides increases. Bulldozing new temporary roads and drill pads here as proposed increases the risk of landslides which could put Grimes Creek, its fishery and clean water at risk.
Tell the USFS that if exploration has to be allowed in this area, the mining company should use helicopters to transport drill rigs as has been done for other exploration projects.