Analysis Shows Support For Mine Critics Say Forest Service Is Playing ‘Numbers Game’ To Skew Public Opinion

More people favor the proposed Asarco Rock Creek Mine than oppose it, according to an analysis released this week by the U.S. Forest Service.

But mine opponents contend that the Forest Service is exaggerating the amount of support for the mine.

“Once again, they’re playing a numbers game with us,” said Diane Williams of the Rock Creek Alliance in Sandpoint.

According to the analysis of public comment on the mine proposal, 68 percent of responses the agency received nationwide were for the mine, 25 percent were opposed and 7 percent put conditions on their approval.

In the towns closest to the proposed copper and silver mine - Noxon and Heron, Mont. - most people were opposed. Also, communities in the surrounding area, including Bonner County, were more opposed than in favor of the mine.

Opponents are worried about the project’s impact on the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness, grizzly bear habitat, bull trout and water quality in the Clark Fork River and Lake Pend Oreille.

Supporters say the mine will bring much-needed jobs to the area and a supply of copper and silver to the nation without threatening the environment. The latest plan for the mine proposes using new technology for the tailings impoundment that Asarco claims is stable and not likely to threaten the Clark Fork River.

The agency tallied the comments in two ways - by response and by signature - producing two different tables. For instance, the Rock Creek Alliance’s petition had 1,539 signatures, but it counts as one response.

All told, the agency tallied 2,252 responses and 3,994 signatures.

The tally of signatures shows more opposition. According to it, 38 percent support the mine nationwide, 19 percent are opposed and 43 percent offer conditional support.

For the surrounding area, the support is only 12 percent, the opposition is 27 percent, and the conditional support is 61 percent.

Williams says tabulating the numbers that way is misleading.

Because the Rock Creek Alliance petition listed nine conditions for mine approval, all the petition signatures were tabulated as conditional support for the mine.

Williams’ own tally of the responses showed that 82 percent of the locals opposed the mine, and almost 99 percent of the responses from Bonner County were opposed.

“They’re intentionally trying to create the illusion of support for the mine,” Williams said of the Forest Service.

Paul Kaiser, the project leader for the mine with the Kootenai National Forest, reiterated the agency’s stance Friday that the public comment process is not a vote.

The only reason the analysis was compiled to show support and opposition was to answer persistent questions that were raised by news reports last spring.

In May, an agency geologist said that 80 percent of the comments to the Supplemental Draft EIS were in support of the mine.

That estimate was repeated in a letter from an agency official in Washington, D.C., to U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis of California:

“While the content analysis is not complete, the vast majority (perhaps 80 to 90 percent) … say that projected environmental and socio-economic impacts of the project would be adequately mitigated by implementing Alternative 5 (the preferred alternative), that additional analysis is unnecessary, and that the agencies should move forward with the permitting process.”

Kaiser said the estimate was premature and that the agency had no intention of counting responses.

“We’re trying to do the best job we can and fairly evaluate the impacts and address them,” he said.

The agency looks for substantive comments to help evaluate the proposal, not to gauge public opinion, he said.

Nevertheless, supporters and opponents did their best to generate public comment in their favor.

Along with the Alliance’s petition, there were pro-mine and anti-mine form letters and a questionnaire developed and distributed by the mining industry. Of the questionnaires, 1,151 were returned to the Forest Service.

While Asarco hasn’t been entirely pleased with the permitting process, so far mining officials haven’t questioned the agency’s analysis of the comments.

Asarco spokesman Dave Young said Friday that he hasn’t had a chance to study it.

“This is not a scientific polling of the people by any means,” Young said. “It’s become a popularity contest. That’s not the purpose of the process at all.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: PROPOSED MINE The mine, proposed by Asarco Mining Co. of New York, would be located near Noxon, Mont., on the edge of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness.