Feds Suing Spokane Mining Firm Montana Subsidiary Accused Of Water-Quality Violations
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Justice Department filed suit Tuesday against Spokane-based Pegasus Gold Corp. and its Montana subsidiary over alleged water-quality violations.
Pegasus subsidiary Zortman Mining Inc. operates two gold mines on the edge of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana. The companies have been in court with Montana regulators for two years over acidic discharges from the mines.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday at the state of Montana’s request, accuses Zortman and Pegasus Gold of discharging wastewater from the Zortman and Landusky mines for five years without a permit in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
The discharges include rock and metal acids as well as water containing cyanide, the agencies said in a news release.
The suit comes just days after President Clinton visited Montana and pledged to end the socalled “War on the West.” Resource-based industries like mining, timber and ranching have complained about renewed regulatory pressure from the Clinton administration.
The federal agencies are asking the court to fine the companies $25,000 a day for each violation and require them to cease the discharges or treat the water properly.
The state Health Department invited the federal agencies to file suit in May because the state’s 2-year-old lawsuit against the companies has failed to produce a settlement, the news release said. The state will ask permission to join the federal suit, the agencies added.
The Fort Belknap tribes filed a similar suit on Tuesday, and the EPA and Justice Department said they will ask to consolidate the suits.
The new legal actions add to the already charged atmosphere between environmental agencies and mining companies in Montana. The proposed New World Mine near Yellowstone National Park faces strong opposition as well.
Pegasus spokesman John Fitzpatrick, in Helena, defended the companies’ mining practices and denied that any harmful discharges have occurred.
He said the dispute revolves around a longstanding state policy of not requiring permits for discharges from “historic” mines. Pegasus contends the Zortman and Landusky mines meet this standard and do not need permits, he said.
“In the last year and a half or so the state has flip-flopped on the policy,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a major issue in this case.”
The Western Environmental Law Center, a public-interest law firm specializing in environmental issues, filed the suit for the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes.
The Zortman and Landusky mines are three miles apart in the Little Rocky Mountains near the headwaters of several streams that flow into the reservation.
The Zortman mines provided 109,000 ounces of gold in 1994 for Pegasus, making Zortman the biggest contributor to the company’s halfmillion ounces produced last year.
Health concerns prompted tribal leaders to involve the tribes in the suit.
“Those of us who live downstream from this operation, which uses cyanide and creates acid mine drainage, are concerned for our health and the health of our children,” said Harlan Mount, chairman of the Fort Belknap Community Council, in a tribal news release.
Fitzpatrick had not seen the tribes’ lawsuit, but said it sounds like the latest step in a continuing battle by the environmental center.
“They have been participating in the state action, and I guess I would characterize their participation as repeatedly attempting to sabotage negotiations being conducted by the state of Montana and the company,” he said.
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