It is so great to see young people getting involved in this issue. Read a great piece in the Montana Kaimin, the University of Montana student newspaper, looking at all sides of the Smith River mine issue.
Department of Environmental Quality First Deficiency
On March 14, 2016, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality submitted their first deficiency notice on Tintina’s Mine Operating Permit application.
Tom Livers, DEQ Director said, “The most significant pieces are the couple of pieces where they’re still working on it so we don’t have it in the application they submitted. All the geochemistry work and the ground water model. Both of those are critical pieces for us to have to be able to truly assess impacts.”
Once DEQ receives a response, the review period is only 30 days, as opposed to 90 days for the initial review. The shorter window for review causes concern for DEQ.
“It’s a little tighter, that’s why it’s a little concerning for us. We’ve got these big missing pieces. We won’t have much time once we get those pieces in, in any subsequent cycles to look at them,” Livers said.
Read the March 15 KTVH article on the deficiency findings or the technical deficiency notice released by the DEQ.
Expert Review of Tintina’s Mine Operating Permit
Montana Trout Unlimited presents a review of the mine permit application Tintina Resources submitted December 15, 2015 to the Department of Environmental Quality . The review was conducted by outside professional consultants Montana TU retained.
The consultants’ findings uncovered significant shortcomings in items such as operation descriptions as well as data completeness and quality for items such as water rights, groundwater characterization, fisheries, degradation potential of cemented paste tailings and mine discharge.
Please click on the links following each experts name and position, for their complete review:
- Final completeness summary
- Jim Kuipers, PE, Kuipers and Associates, Wisdom, Montana: Technical Review
- Kendra Zamzow, PhD, CSP2, geochemist, Bozeman, Montana and Chickaloon, Alaska: Geochemistry and water treatment
- Ken Knudson, MA, consulting aquatic ecologist, Helena, Montana: Aquatic and fisheries review
- Tom Myers, PhD, consulting, hydrologist/geohydrologist, Reno, Nevada: Hydrology review
These consultants were further advised by Dave Chambers, PhD, president, CSP2, geophysicist, Bozeman, Montana.
For further questions please contact David Brooks, [email protected], or Colin Cooney, [email protected]
Trout Line – Winter 2016
Follow the link to read the full electronic version of Montana Trout Unlimited’s quarterly newsletter.
Tintina’s 50+ year mine plan
The red circle is the current Black Butte project. All of the other colored areas are federal mine claims or private leases owned by the company. You can see what their real plan is, turn this area into a 50+ year mining district right by the Smith River.