Caldwell Canyon Phosphate Mine

June 2, 2023 — Advocates for the West won another major victory when a federal judge fully vacated a set of approvals by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorizing development of the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine. The Court said that any economic burdens caused by its decision to vacate the BLM’s prior approvals for development of the mine were outweighed by the need to ensure the ruling did not “incentivize agencies and third parties to ‘invest heavily in potentially illegal projects upfront, only to claim later that the economic consequences in setting aside those projects would be [too great to ignore].’”

February 8, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed our opening brief on remedies, urging the Court to vacate the Caldwell Canyon Record of Decision, Environmental Impact Statement, and all decisions relying on those documents.

January 24, 2023 — A federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately assess environmental harms, including harms to vital habitat for the imperiled sage-grouse, in approving the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine. The ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho determined that the Bureau violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy Management Act when it approved the phosphate mine without first analyzing and restricting, mitigating, or eliminating impacts to greater sage-grouse such as harms to habitat and population connectivity.

November 2, 2022 — Advocates for the West presented oral argument for summary judgment in a hearing before District of Idaho Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

August 29, 2022 — Advocates for the West filed our reply brief in this case.

May 13, 2022 — Advocates for the West filed a motion for summary judgment and accompanying memorandum over the Bureau of Land Management’s unlawful approval of the Caldwell Canyon open-pit phosphate mine in southeast Idaho. The mine would operate for more than 40 years, scarring the landscape with miles-long open pits, ore stockpiles, roads, railroads, powerlines, and other infrastructure.

April 27, 2021 – Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging a decision made by the Trump Administration to greenlight the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine in southeast Idaho.

In 2019, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the mine on some 1,559 acres of ecologically important land that’s essential to sensitive native species such as the imperiled greater sage-grouse, including breeding and nesting grounds for the small and declining East Idaho Uplands sage-grouse population.

An environmental review of the proposed mine also failed to account for increased selenium pollution to waterways and wildlife, and increased radioactive waste and heavy metal pollution resulting from the processing of phosphate ore.

Selenium — a byproduct of phosphate mining — has already caused extensive damage to surface and groundwaters in the region, which will only get worse with increased mining. Selenium pollution has been linked to the deaths of hundreds of cows in southeast Idaho and has caused deformities and other harms in birds, aquatic animals and other wildlife.

Phosphate from the mine will be used by the German multinational chemical company Bayer AG to manufacture glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicides. Glyphosate has been linked to cancer and harm in hundreds of endangered plants and animals.