Mine Owner Blames Vandals For Leakage

The owner of a mine where 20,000 gallons of cyanide solution has leaked from a holding pond is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of vandals.

But Lynne Stone of the Boulder White Clouds Council, an environmental watchdog group has some doubts. She said two years ago, federal officials warned the pond liner was dangerously old.

“If that’s the case, then I certainly support catching whoever did it,” she said Tuesday. “I have to wonder if the vandal isn’t old man winter and ice.”

Officials say they won’t know for several days whether they have a water contamination problem.

The pond is one of three at Preachers Cove, a cyanide gold processing operation owned by U.S. Antimony of Thompson Creek, Mont. The leak from three slits in the pond’s rubberlike liner was discovered during a routine check by the Forest Service. The pond is near the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, downstream from Challis.

Crews are pumping the remaining cyanide solution into another pond so that the liner can be inspected and repaired.

The National Marine Fisheries Service told the Forest Service in a November 23, 1993, letter that the liner was so old, it should be replaced.