Groups Challenge Trump Admin’s Rushed Approval of Cabinet Mountains Mining Project

A coalition of local and national organizations today filed suit over the Trump administration’s fast-tracked approval of the Libby Exploration Project in northwestern Montana’s Cabinet Mountains. The lawsuit claims that the Montanore Minerals Corporation project threatens unpolluted waters, including those in a federally-designated wilderness area, and species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration approved the project in October without completing the required Environmental Impact Statement and wrongly concluded that the mine would not impact ESA-protected bull trout and grizzly bears.

Read quotes from the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit targets the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their inadequate environmental analysis of the Libby project. The project threatens to dewater Cabinet Mountains Wilderness surface waters. According to the U.S. Forest Service, waters in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness are rated among the top 5% in the lower 48 for purity. The project would also increase nutrient pollution entering a portion of Libby Creek designated as critical habitat for bull trout and develop significant infrastructure adjacent to and underneath the wilderness area.

In irrationally concluding that the project would not harm threatened grizzly bears and bull trout in the area, the Forest Service also failed to use the best available science, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The Libby project would fragment crucial grizzly bear habitat and increase road use, putting at risk an especially vulnerable Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population. The agency also failed to properly consider the impacts to Libby Creek’s bull trout from higher water temperatures from Montanore’s water treatment facility.

Montanore’s parent company, Hecla Mining Co, has a history of violating environmental laws at its other mining operations — the Greens Creek Mine in Alaska and Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho. In its approval of the Libby project, the Forest Service failed to consider the company’s past violations.

The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and adjacent national forest lands are braided by high-elevation streams and harbor vital populations of bull trout, as well as Westslope cutthroat trout and other sensitive, coldwater fish that are facing increasing threats from climate change. The area supports one of the last five grizzly bear populations that persist in the lower 48 today.

Earthjustice represents Cabinet Resource Group, Clark Fork Coalition, Earthworks, Montana Environmental Information Center, Save Our Cabinets, and the Yaak Valley Forest Council in the lawsuit.