A recently approved gold mine in Idaho's backcountry is facing legal pushback from conservation groups who say it puts threatened species, public lands, and community health at serious risk.
What's happening?
A group of local and national conservation organizations, including Idaho Rivers United, is suing the U.S. Forest Service over its approval of a controversial mining project in Idaho, arguing it threatens wildlife, public health, and clean water.
The project, known as the Stibnite Gold Project, is an "open-pit cyanide leach gold mine" planned for Idaho's Salmon River Mountains.
The mine would use cyanide to extract gold and would significantly expand the current mining site, doubling it to more than 3,200 acres, roughly the size of 2,500 football fields. The area is also part of the ancestral lands of the Nez Perce Tribe.
The coalition says the Forest Service failed to fully consider the environmental impacts before approving the project. It warns the project could "jeopardize public health and clean water, harm threatened species, and permanently scar thousands of acres of public land."
"The impacts to the South Fork Salmon River watershed, threatened fish and wildlife, public access, clean air, clean water, and world-class recreation from the Stibnite Gold Project are simply unacceptable," John Robison, public lands and wildlife director for the Idaho Conservation League, said in a statement.
The coalition also pointed out that past mining at the site has already caused serious pollution in the area, and it fears this new project would only make things worse.
The lawsuit also names the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service for violating the Endangered Species Act. The coalition claimed the organizations have failed to protect threatened Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and wolverine from the mine's potential impacts.
Why is this lawsuit important?
This lawsuit argues that federal agencies, particularly the Forest Service, failed to safeguard the environment by prioritizing industry over protection. These agencies, which have legal obligations to protect clean air, water, and wildlife, should be leading the way on climate responsibility. When they fall short, it weakens climate and environmental policy as a whole.
At the center of the legal challenge is protecting the South Fork Salmon River watershed, a key habitat for numerous threatened fish species. These species are already struggling with the impacts of planet-warming pollution, including habitat loss and warming waters. Allowing mining to degrade their habitat further pushes these species closer to extinction and weakens the entire ecosystem.
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Majorly 😥 Notably, the project would use cyanide to process gold, generating massive amounts of toxic waste known as tailings. This waste can leach into waterways, threatening clean water access for wildlife and local communities. As climate shifts increase the frequency of extreme weather and flooding, the risk of tailings spilling or breaching containment ponds increases.
The mine would also require building roads, power lines, worker housing, and industrial infrastructure in a remote area, leading to deforestation, soil erosion, and significant pollution. Once disturbed, these wild lands rarely recover fully.
What else is standing in the way of the mine?
Though the Forest Service gave a green light on paper, the coalition said the project can't yet move forward.
The Forest Service still needs to approve a plan for how the mining company will run the operation, agree on financials for cleaning up environmental damage, and review the mining company's funds.
The mining project also still needs several key permits from both state and federal agencies, and the coalition claimed current drafts of permits do not "sufficiently protect public health and the environment."
The coalition hopes that these delays, along with the lawsuit, will stop the project from moving forward — hopefully forever.
Marc Fink, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement, "The agencies need to focus on cleaning up the toxic mining pollution that's already here, not make things worse by greenlighting decades more of it."
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