Injustice of Mining Decisions

The Environmental Injustices of Montana’s Mining Laws

by Derf Johnson

Mining is a dirty business. There’s really no way around it. Mitigation activities can certainly be incorporated into mining plans, but these steps often only reduce, not eliminate, mining’s environmental impacts and damage.

The fact is that extracting large volumes of minerals from the earth is energy-intensive, displaces all other activities during the mining process, involves exposure of water to toxins, and generates enormous amounts of waste. These are unfortunate realities. Where mines are permitted and how they are regulated, including the specific environmental and permitting standards that are used, are absolutely critical in deciding how we obtain the metals needed to power modern society and the ever-growing clean energy sector.

The process for permitting mines, including its public involvement component, is arguably just as important as the substantive environmental standards. Developing a fair and equitable process that adequately informs and involves the public is not easy but, if conducted properly, can help to avoid the worst environmental outcomes of the mining activity.

Montana does have strong public participation and “right-to-know” provisions in its Constitution that have assisted and bolstered MEIC in its work to fight the most egregious mining proposals. However, the way in which the State of Montana conducts the permitting and oversight of hardrock mines receives an F grade when it comes to environmental justice.

Montana mining laws do not provide for the fair treatment and protection of all Montanans, regardless of their background, from the worst impacts associated with mining. In fact, it’s clear that the mining laws and regulations on the books encourage, rather than prohibit, inequity.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines the concept of “environmental justice” as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” Only recently have the principles of environmental justice begun to be incorporated into federal laws and regulations. A number of states are following suit. Notably, though, no Rocky Mountain state, and that includes Montana, has adopted specific environmental justice laws or principles. To expand upon that definition, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice has noted that “certain groups in society bear unequal environmental and economic burdens such as poor air and water quality, as well as unhealthy living conditions resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations and/

Acid mine sludge settles at the Swift Gulch Treatment Plant. The sludge will be buried at the Landusky site. Photo by Karl Puckett.

or federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.” While procedures can be developed that involve and treat all people fairly, the reality often means that communities with less representation, money, or influence suffer the environmental impacts of mining and other activities more than those with more power.

In part, this is why real life examples abound in Montana of the failure to live up to these human rights standards. Most, if not all, of the environmental catastrophes in Montana have an environmental justice story woven in and around them. Two recent examples involving MEIC’s work come to mind. In both cases, we are working for a more fair and meaningful process in environmental decision making, whether through state laws requiring such consideration or in individual permitting decisions.

Blue Arc Exploration

Since the bankruptcy of Pegasus Gold in the late 1990s, the defunct Zortman-Landusky mines in north-central Montana have been held up as an ugly poster child for how to not permit and conduct mining and reclamation activities. The devastation caused by Pegasus in the Little Rockies will live in infamy as one of Montana’s most egregious environmental disasters during the last century (for more background on ZortmanLandusky, see the “Bad Actor” story on pg. 4). Tens of millions of public dollars have been spent in attempting to address the ongoing pollution problem at Zortman-Landusky, which will require treatment in perpetuity and has poisoned a water source for the Fort Belknap Tribe.

A very small and under-capitalized company known as Blue Arc, based in Bozeman, recently began exploration activities at the Zortman reclamation site, with the explicit authorization of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). This approval was given by DEQ without any consultation of, or consent by, the Fort Belknap Tribe, which is now an unwitting party to yet another set of risks and dangers associated with mining in the Little Rockies. The fact that DEQ did not believe that it was appropriate or required to consult the Fort Belknap Tribe on new mining activities at Zortman, and let alone receive consent from the Tribe, speaks volumes about the inequity of mining laws in Montana.

Dust from a blast at Montana Resources’ openpit mine in 2018. Photo by Meagan Thompson.