VICTORY! Mining Company to Pay Nez Perce Tribe $5 Million to Settle Clean Water Act Lawsuit
18th of Aug 2023
Mining company Perpetua Resources will pay the Nez Perce Tribe $5 million as part of a settlement agreement reached over ongoing pollution discharges into the headwaters of the East Fork South Fork Salmon River. The settlement resolves a 2019 Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuit filed by Advocates for the West and the Tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel challenging the illegal discharge of arsenic, cyanide, mercury, and other pollutants, without a CWA permit, from mining adits and waste piles at the proposed Stibnite Gold Mine site east of McCall, Idaho.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Tribe will continue to oppose Perpetua’s proposal for a massive new gold mine—including three open pit mines and a towering mine waste dam—on the edge of the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness. The area within and surrounding the proposed mine is part of the aboriginal homelands of the Tribe over which the Tribe has treaty-reserved fishing, hunting, gathering, and pasturing rights. For over two decades, the Tribe, as a co-manager of its treaty resources, has expended approximately $2.79 million annually in the South Fork Salmon River watershed on fisheries supplementation, research, and watershed restoration work as part of the broader Columbia River Basin salmon restoration efforts.
As per the settlement, Perpetua (formerly Midas Gold) agrees to provide payments totaling $4 million over a four-year period into a special fund to be used by the Tribe to support water quality improvement projects in the South Fork Salmon River watershed. Specific projects will be identified by the Tribe in coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency and Forest Service. Perpetua will also reimburse the Tribe $1 million for fees and costs incurred in connection with the Tribe’s CWA lawsuit.
“Advocates for the West has long partnered with the Tribe to defend irreplaceable natural resources within the Tribe’s aboriginal homelands from industrial degradation and bad agency decisions,” said Laird Lucas, Executive Director at Advocates for the West. “This settlement marks a major victory on that front, but our work is far from finished. Along with the Tribe and our other partners, we will continue to fight the proposed Stibnite Gold Mine and the harm it threatens to clean water, clean air, fish and wildlife, and communities.”
In January 2023, Advocates for the West partnered with a coalition of conservation groups and experts to help draft comments on the proposed Stibnite Gold Mine’s draft environmental review, which is riddled with missing information and analysis and falls far short in addressing both the short- and long-term threats the project poses to water quality, salmon and steelhead, wolverine and other wildlife, human health, and Tribal interests.
Meanwhile, Perpetua is seeking approval from state, federal, and local agencies for multiple permits required for new gold mining operations at the Stibnite Gold Mine site, with the company’s push for approvals expected to ramp up in the coming year. Along with the Tribe and other partners, Advocates for the West has challenged an air pollution permit issued by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality allowing arsenic-laden dust from the project to sully fresh air and clean water, and posing health risks to the public. The proposed mining activities would result in large quantities of dust or particulate matter being emitted into the air, which can cause serious health problems. The rocks, soils, and dust at Stibnite are high in arsenic, a human carcinogen known to cause developmental effects, diabetes, pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease.
