Mine Protester Makes Visible Argument Says Truckload Of Junk Represents What Asarco Would Dump Into River Daily

Cesar Hernandez is driving around with a heavy load this week - 1,100 pounds, to be exact.

He’s heading to Helena with a truckload of sand, fertilizer, lead sinkers, a vial of mercury, a zinc boat fin, five grinding balls, several window weights, 3,144 aluminum cans and a jar of copper pennies.

Hernandez, coordinator of the Cabinet Resources Group and a member of the Rock Creek Alliance, will deliver his load to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality as “virtual testimony” against Asarco Mining Co.’s application for a discharge permit to the Clark Fork River.

“It won’t fit in the file cabinet,” said Montana DEQ’s Kathy Johnson, when she heard of the impending delivery.

Asarco needs the permit to operate the proposed Rock Creek Mine, a copper and silver mine outside of Noxon, Mont., on the edge of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.

The first stop on Hernandez’s road trip to Helena was Coeur d’Alene, where he set up signs opposing the Rock Creek Mine in the Third Street parking lot. He plans on visiting Sandpoint, Noxon, Thompson Falls and Missoula.

“If I were to take all of this and go over there and start throwing it in the water, everyone here would be visibly upset,” he said. “And I would essentially be a criminal.”

The 1,100-pound collection of cans, sand, zinc and other junk represents the amount of pollutants that Montana would allow the Rock Creek Mine to discharge every day to the Clark Fork River under the proposed permit.

It might look like a lot, but if the existing amount of metals, nitrogen and suspended solids already flowing by Noxon, Mont., were in a similar form, the Clark Fork River might look like a floating junkyard.

“You need to compare it with something,” said Dave Young of Asarco. “It’s less than 0.01 percent of what’s already in there.”

Montana will allow Asarco to discharge only up to 15 percent of the state standard, according to Tom Reid, a state Department of Environmental Quality water quality specialist.

While the Clark Fork River has no room for more nitrogen or some other contaminants upstream, there is room for more at Noxon, he said.

“As it goes downstream, it picks up the Blackfoot River, the Bitterroot River and the Flathead River,” Reid said. “It becomes a much bigger river. … We think that with the treatments that Asarco is proposing, the effluent limits in the permit will be protective and won’t cause a problem.”

The amounts listed in the permit are higher than what Asarco intends to dump, Young said. He estimates the actual discharge will be closer to 250 to 300 pounds per day.

A public comment period on the mine and the discharge permit has been extended until April 10. Both the Montana department and Kootenai National Forest are collecting comments on the proposal.

Johnson said specific comments on the draft supplemental environmental impact statement are most helpful. Simple statements for and against the project won’t get much attention, she said.

“This is not a voting process,” she said.

Copies of the document are available for viewing at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, the East Bonner County Library in Sandpoint and the Clark Fork Library. It’s also available on the Internet at this address: http://www.deq.mt.gov/eis.htm.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: On the Internet Copies of the draft supplemental environmental impact statement are available for viewing at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, the East Bonner County Library in Sandpoint and the Clark Fork Library. It’s also available on the Internet at: http://www.deq.mt.gov/eis.htm.