The Battle Is Over - Vigilance Continues

Settlement agreement a positive outcome for Buckhorn Mountain.

• Impacts reduced
• Independent monitoring with verification
• Improvements to area wetland and stream habitat

An accord was reached between OHA and Crown/Kinross, ending the 18-year effort that stopped the development of an open-pit, cyanide-leach large gold mine on Buckhorn Mountain. By negotiating the agreement. The Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) was able to achieve proactive environmental protections beyond those required by federal and state agencies.
In September 2006, the Washington State Department of Ecology approved a construct permit for Crown Resources/Kinross to build the proposed mine. OHA appealed this and many other permits but all permit appeals were consolidated for one hearing that would not take place untill all the permits had been issued. This process gave the company over a year and a half to construct the mine on what had been public lands. In the fall of 2007 the Department issued water rights and water quality certification. OHA, Washington Environmental Council (WEC), and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy were preparing for a trial that had been scheduled to begin on May 12.  A month before the trial was to begin OHA agreed to meet with the company to see if any of our concerns could be addressed. We were able to come to an agreement that provided verifiable, independent monitoring and increased protection for headwater streams and wetland mitigation. 
Instead of a very expensive legal battle, OHA and Crown/Kinross will put their resources into positive improvements on and around Buckhorn Mountain benefiting the environment and providing independent oversight of the mine impacts for the community.
Despite significant changes to the rejected open-pit mine proposal, grave concerns remain about the current underground mine proposal. The settlement allows the parties to track these concerns and minimize the impacts of the mine.
Key parts of the settlement with Crown/Kinross focus on improved monitoring and mitigation. High-points include: maintenance of the natural water levels for headwater creeks on Buckhorn Mountain; protection for residents worried about their wells; additional wetland and stream improvement projects in the Okanogan Highlands; and third party monitoring with independent verification and annual audits of monitoring results.
While this settlement is a victory of sorts and will be looked at as a win-win for the local community, OHA will have to remain vigilant for a very long time.
With the settlement, the mine will provide jobs to the area and the local community can have a reasonable level of confidence that the mine will not be detrimental to the environment.
“We applaud OHA’s work and are supportive of the settlement because it takes a long-term view of the impacts from the mine and assures accountability from the mining company to minimize those impacts on the mountain, the creeks and local people,” said Joan Crooks, executive director of Washington Environmental Council.
“The public interest is protected in this settlement.  Water impacts have been a contentious issue for more than ten years and we are glad to finally get it right,” said Rachael Paschal Osborn, executive director, Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
OHA and Crown previously worked out a settlement of issues regarding road access through federal lands, with an agreement for third party independent monitoring and oversight of water quality of mine water discharges to federal land and sediment impacts to Marias Creek where 100 trucks a day would transport ore to the mill near Republic, WA.

Details of the Agreement

Key Monitoring Provisions:

• Crown/Kinross will hire an independent third party to do their monitoring and reporting
• Crown will provide funds for OHA to hire its own independent monitoring company to do annual audits, quarterly visits, random sampling and testing to analyse Crown’s third party work
• Crown will increase water quality monitoring on the west slope of Buckhorn Mountain
• Crown will increase monitoring for sediment during spring runoff.
• Crown will lower the threshold for corrective action if sedimentation increases in Marias Creek
• Crown will collect baseline water quality and quantity data for residents wells that are reasonably close to the mine if residents have concerns. 
• Crown will send OHA all moitoring data.
• OHA will be permitted access to mine site.
• Crown and OHA will attend an annual meeting to discuss monitoring results.

Key Mitigation Provisions:

• As long as they are operating the dewatering wells, Crown will run water over to the headwaters of Gold and Bolster creeks to maintain seasonal baseflow.
• After closure of the mine Crown, will retire 25 acres of the Lost Creek Ranch irrigation water (15 acres more than the agencies required). This would add water to Myers Creek and Bolster alluvial fan groundwater to replace the predicted permanent reduction caused by mining
  
• Crown agreed to .permanent conservation easements of their mitigation sites including the reclaimed mine site and opening them for public access. 
  
• Crown will also fund a significant amount of additional mitigation sites throughout the area.
  
• Crown will fix problems with residents wells that are caused by mining activity.
• Crown will make a good faith effort to minimize truck hauling on weekends.
  

Crown Seeks New Exploration Permit

Crown/Kinross has submitted a request to the USDA Forest Service to drill 13 exploration drill holes to the south and west of Buckhorn Mountain. The exploration is proposed on Federal public land that is claimed by Crown/Kinross under the archaic 1872 Mining Law. The drill pads that are proposed on the west side of the ridge between Bolster and Ethel Creek headwaters would be on existing road number FS-141. The drill pads in the Marias Creek drainage would require new road construction between the FS-120 road and the new road built for ore transport from the Buckhorn Mine.
OHA has not given up any rights to challenge any expansion of the Buckhorn Mine or any other mine proposals. We have every intension of scrutinizing this and any other proposals.

End of an Era

Letter from the President of OHA’s Board of Directors
Harris Dunkelberger

Pure water is more precious than gold has always been OHA’s theme.  A lot of other issues have been part of the struggle against the mining of gold on Buckhorn Mountain but keeping the water pure has always been our primary goal.  The original open pit cyanide leach mine was a travesty and was defeated.  A long time ago we were told that a shaft mine was not economically feasible yet when the mine again reared its head as a shaft mine OHA was still concerned that, among many other things, the proposed mine would endanger the quality and quantity of the water flowing from Buckhorn Mountain. OHA continued to oppose this mine and its experts showed many ways that the proposal did not protect the waters of Buckhorn.
Recently OHA was asked to negotiate with the mining company. As a board we put together what we felt would be needed for us to withdraw our opposition to the mine.  In mediation the mining company agreed to many of our proposals.  The board agreed to these proposals.  We all had reservations and mistrust, but under the circumstances we decided that to accept these proposals as the best that we could do to protect the waters flowing from Buckhorn Mt.  I had many reservations but decided to support this compromise.  After nearly two decades of struggle against this mine, we decided that we had the tools to keep the waters pure.
I had trepidations when David and I went to visit the mine after the settlement. I can’t say that all my fears have been assuaged and I would still prefer not to have a mine at all but I was impressed with their state of the art water treatment facility.  I also felt that the mine manager, the safety manager and especially the manager of the water treatment facility were sincere and would stick to their side of the agreement.  I hope I am right.
The struggle is not over. OHA and its experts are going to keep close watch on the water quality and we will work to keep this mine an environmentally responsible operation.  With the price of gold sky high, we are sure there will be other attempts at gold extraction in the Okanogan Highlands.  OHA will keep close watch on these efforts and OHA is dedicated to projects that improve the environment of the area.
We at OHA have been disappointed that the government watchdog agencies have not been rigorous enough in the protection of our environment.  I have felt that local politicians and leaders have been too desperate for the jobs and economic stimulation that they felt the mine would provide.  This mine is going to make an amazing amount of money and a lot of it will exit our community.  I encourage the company to put a lot of resources into our local community.  I hope that they will see fit to support community efforts in the Chesaw area and to generously commit to the new library in Oroville.  Such contributions to our community will help ensure that the mining company gets the reputation of giving to the local community and not just extracting  resources.
I feel that there have been lots of heros in this long struggle and I especially want to thank Woody R who worked tirelessly in the early years.  Woody is a personal hero of mine. He traveled all over the country and is a legend in the OHA struggle against irresponsible mining. I know David K would have appreciated his help in this latest effort. Not only did he learn about the intricacies of mining but as the drummer for the band Ghost Trout he wrote and played music that was part of the mine opposition.  He has long since moved from the area but his early contributions were invaluable.
Many others have helped in this struggle with benefits, the newsletter, economic contributions, meals and meeting after meeting of the OHA board and the membership.  They are too numerous to mention.  This has certainly been a community effort and involved a lot of people.  Many gave their moral support.  You know who you are, so thanks.  You have helped protect our environment, a job well done.

The Settlement

We went in to settlement talks focused on monitoring and mitigation.  
On the monitoring front, the company is increasing the number of water quality monitoring locations to cover the west slope extensively, they are hiring a third party to do all of their monitoring and reporting, they will fund OHA to hire our own monitoring company to do annual audits, quarterly visits and random sampling and testing to analyse their work, they are increasing monitoring for sediment during spring runoff.  
On the mitigation front, so long as the company is running the dewatering well, they will run water over to Gold and Bolster creeks to replace any drawdown, and after closure they will retire 25 acres of the Leslie Ranch irrigation right to trust.   Ecology and WDFW pushed for 2 years to get the acreage up to 10 acres.  WDFW wanted 12 acres retired.   OHA got 25 acres out of irrigation into trust.   They agreed to permanent protection of their mitigation sites and leaving them open for public access.  Crown/Kinross funded OHA to permit and install our own mitigation sites.  We went in with a list: mostly pool creation along Myers, Marias and Nicholson Creeks and the restoration of a couple key on-site wetlands.  The company agreed to all, but wanted us to do the work with their funding.    They also agree to collect baseline data on any proximate local well and then fix if they cause a problem.     
 Our intention in going into a mediation were to obtain more monitoring and oversight and more on and off site mitigation for streamflow and wetlands than the agencies could get.   We believe we got that.  Yes, there will be a mine, but we think the impacts have been reduced and it will be the most heavily monitored and mitigated we know of.   This is a significant accomplishment.    We have been struggling for 15 years to protect Buckhorn Mountain and its surrounding aquatic resources.   We collectively killed a very bad open pit mine and then when Crown came back with a much more reasonable underground proposal, we managed to go farther than the agencies and ensure long term independent monitoring and oversight of the monitoring and significant on and off site mitigation to streamflow and wetlands. The mine goes in and provides jobs in an area where jobs are needed.  The local community also can have a reasonable level of confidence that the environmental effects of the mine will be closely scrutinized.   This will be one of the most monitored and mitigated mines in the country.

What OHA Members Have To Say About the Settlement Agreement

Well-Deserved Success

Just read the Seattle Times’s article about your well-deserved success:  you all have worked so hard and so long, and just kept getting better and better.  I was very impressed with the reports of your scientists, and evidently so was everyone else.  You are formidable!  I hope that this will prove that a negotiated success is really win/win for everyone.  Thank you for undertaking such an arduous task on behalf of the planet.  My children and grandchildren thank you.

Hard Work For So Long

You’ve worked so hard for so long.  
It’s a great victory.  Thank you for all your time and effort.
Words don’t even begin to say how pleased I am that you have achieved an underground mine, independent WQ monitoring paid by the polluters and Restoration. That is the best result, if we still have to have a mine. Your years of work have paid off. The delays and the high price of gold finally helped get the company to do what was needed to get close to what is necessary.
Thank you so very, very much.

It Hasn't Been Easy

Congratulations on the Buckhorn Mountain mining victory!
When I think about what was originally proposed in the early 1990’s, and all the improvements you have fought for, especially in the face of the absurd rise in gold prices, it is amazing!  You have been incredibly dedicated and determined and I know it hasn’t always been easy ...

Way To Go

Congratulations!   What a relief!  I think settlement was definitely the way to go at this point and it looks good if they do what they say they will.  Hopefully the agreement is legally enforceable.  I realize the agreement is probably not perfect, but it looks the main water issue is dealt with.   Good Work!  Thank you.

Takes Strength To Settle

CONGRATULATIONS! You got more than I thought you ever would. But I am sure it is not over. They must be watched vigilantly; they can’t be trusted to do the right thing.
I just finished reading the full settlement agreement. Wow. You have negotiated an incredible settlement.
I was thinking last night about how it takes a lot of strength to fight, but it takes even more strength to stop.
I have always admired the strength and resolve you have brought to this struggle- gentle, but adamant. It takes a special person to keep working for all these years, and I am so very grateful to you for not only taking this on but seeing it through. I understand that there is more work ahead, but you have found an extraordinary pathway here- well done. Well done indeed.
I’m grateful that you gave me the chance to participate in this- it’s been a terrific project. Thanks again for everything, and I hope you and your family can take a minute to celebrate this hard-won milestone!
Best wishes to all,

Strong Case

WOW! WOW! WOW! WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE AGREEMENT - You obviously had a strong case as indicated by the concessions made by Kinross. I assume that in the event that water quality is in danger of being degraded that Kinross would have to cease operations until that issue are remedied?  I love that you got them to pay for a 3rd party assessment of their own independent monitoring agency. WOW!

Best Outcome Given The Circumstances

Thank you for your tireless efforts to save Buckhorn Mountain and achieving the best outcome possible for our environment given the circumstances and mining interests.  Like you I regret it has to happen at all, but I know you and partners and supporters have accomplished tremendous results.  So, thank you.

Appreciation

I was delighted to read in  The Chronicle today the article about the settlement between OHA and the Buckhorn Mine developers.  I want to extend my appreciation to you and those who have worked with you and supported you  during these longs years of battle over the Buckhorn Mine.  Your efforts to protect the Highlands from the potential hazards of the Buckhorn mine have been successful.  I look forward to hearing the story of this “win-win” settlement.

From The Pits - Bittersweet

Although we wanted to convince the hearings board to send Washington Department of Ecology a clear message that they have a responsibility to carry out their mission to protect our water, the environment and the public interest, we hope that the Department will realize that the public interest demands a higher standard of protection and compensation than the minimum. Dismissing the appeals leaves some unresolved questions of water law but they will have to wait for another day.
OHA did a great deal of soul searching to even consider speaking with the mining interests about a settlement. We turned down numerous requests believing it was a ruse to distract us from the legal proceedings. After being assured that the company was willing to offer significant concessions, we acknowledged the possibility that more could be gained for Buckhorn Mountain, its water and environment and the Okanogan Highlands community by settling the appeals. If we won in court, the permits would likely be remanded back to Ecology for more mitigation and they would be reissued. With the price of gold so high, it was unlikely the company would abandon the project.
OHA’s efforts to empower the public has kept the pressure on thereby reducing impacts of this mine. This settlement provides verification of the monitoring that goes beyond what the law requires. If something happens we will know about it and make sure it is remedied. In the meantime OHA will put some of the company’s wealth to work on various wetland and stream restoration projects providing recreational, aesthetic and environmental benefits as well as providing additional monitoring and mitigation  jobs in the Okanogan Highlands.
This will be a big change for OHA. We hope that you are as excited as we are about the direction OHA is taking and the positive improvements we can continue to make in the environment for the present and for future generations.
Thank you for so much your support and encouragement over these many years, we couldn’t have accomplished this without you.

Wetland and Stream Restoration

As part of the Buckhorn Settlement Agreement Crown/Kinross will fund OHA to implement various mitigation projects  in the Okanogan Highlands to restore wetland and stream habitats. A wetland that has been of primary concern to many residents in the Chesaw are is the were Bolster Creek empties out an alluvial fan into Myers Creek called the Bolster Wetland. Bolster has always been the creek that has been predicted to have the largest permanent impact from dewatering Buckhorn Mountain.
Over a period of time the between ‘97 and ‘98, in the midst of this once thriving wetland and heron rookery, the beavers left and Myers Creek incised to a maximum depth of 12 ft.
As one of our first large restoration projects OHA hopes to collaborate with various federal, state and local agencies to develop a strategy to return this important wetland to a heathy and thriving condition.

"I've come to believe that all living beings are connected, and that humans have responsibilities for stewarding the great miracle of the earth. We are part of a cosmic order of things that is beyond our understanding, but that asserts a claim on us and demands that we -- individually and collectively -- act out of the deepest wisdom that we can draw on."
Excerpted from an interview in The Shambala Sun with Charles Halpren about his book Making Waves and Riding the Currents.