| |
|
Spring 2000 Bulletin
Molycorp Update
On April 1st, Governor Gary Johnson sent a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency stating simply that he concurred with the federal agency's decision to list the Molycorp mine near Questa as a Superfund site. This was an April Fool's Day event, we believe, in the historical and more profound sense of 'fool' - as joker, master of surprises, and revealer of hidden truths. The decision was something of a surprise because, up to the proverbial eleventh hour, the State and the Governor had been repeating their preference for a negotiated, non-federal deal. In fact, these negotiations for an AOC (Administrative Order on Consent) cleanup have been going on since 1995. The State may have been using the Superfund threat as a stick with which to force Molycorp/Unocal into an adequate reclamation deal. When the company refused yet again, the joker had to be played. Amigos Bravos believes we can take a good deal of the credit for this, serendipitous as it may look. The Governor needed some widespread popular support to make such a tough decision, and we helped provide it. Our Action Alert to our members produced a barrage of pro-Superfund letters, emails and phone calls to the Governor's Office, and we followed these up with a formal visit to the Governor with our allies from Questa, NM Citizens for Clean Air & Water and New Mexico Trout - an 'audience' which expanded from the allotted 15 minutes to nearly an hour. In essence, Molycorp/Unocal had left no option but Superfund. The company did not even communicate with the Governor prior to the deadline he had set, presumably believing that the stonewalling tactics it has been using for 35 years–which delayed the overhaul of its inadequate tailings pipes for 20 years, for example, at the public cost of many toxic spills into the Red River and Questa acequias–will continue to protect it from environmental responsibilities. A strong public watchdog role has been essential in making Molycorp/Unocal come even this far, and Superfund, which can incorporate this role, is as strong as it gets. So Amigos Bravos celebrates a great success. We are very aware that Superfund is potentially a double-edged sword, however. You only have to look at the acronyms and abbreviations so frequently used, from 'EPA' itself to NPL (Molycorp mine is now on a draft National Priorities Listing) and JTI (the Superfund Job Training Initiative) to realize that Superfund is part of a huge bureaucracy and can suffer from the distant officialdom, excessive red tape and impractical expectations that darken many a shining public ideal. On the other side, though, it provides the guaranteed resources to get the huge job done (through the Superfund Trust Fund; EPA pursues the guilty party to recover costs, but does not have to rely on success); it provides the means to do the job right, by combining piecemeal state efforts under one umbrella and potentially ensuring the problems are addressed at source, not with temporary 'band-aids'; and it provides a structured route-map for strong public, especially community, participation.Two examples of Superfund, neither of them wholly positive, are proving very instructive. One is the Summitville gold mine, just across the Colorado line in the San Juan Mountains. With disastrous environmental management from its opening in the 1980s, the mine was Superfund listed under its emergency provision in 1992 because of the threat of a huge cyanide spill. No community organization, with independent technical advisors, was in place at this point, and early EPA management has been called wasteful and ineffective. Now, though, the community oversight group (funded by renewable Superfund Technical Assistance Grants) is much stronger, and has hired independent advisors to make EPA clean up its act and stop half-measures being taken. Wendy Mellott, the Summitville TAG co-ordinator, is providing us with advice about the many lessons learned. The main lesson is that a well-organized community watchdog has a vital role to play in the success of Superfund. By keeping its eye firmly on the twin goals of a really thorough, long-term cleanup plus a sustainable local economy, the community can rein in the bureaucratic excesses and effectively determine its own future. Many of the benefits of Superfund, such as the TAG itself and the official Job Training Initiative through which locals can gain training and employment in mine reclamation, are dependent on the community's getting its act together at an early stage. Fortunately, Amigos Bravos has already put together a strong technical team–described by the national Mineral Policy Center as one of the best they have seen in place for a Superfund listing–to steer public input on reclamation. The other useful Superfund example is from Butte, Montana. The Silver Bow/Berkley Pit copper mine closed down in 1983 and was Superfund-listed, in the meantime flooding with toxic water which was no longer being pumped out by mine operations. The Superfund investigation of the complex site took until 1990, by which time the single-industry town had suffered a serious economic downturn. Thereafter, though, Superfund created many reclamation jobs, and achieved some of the pollution treatment via an operating, adjacent mine. At Molycorp, similarly, toxic water treatment will continue to be necessary, and might be best done by a mine which continues to operate at some level. Fortunately, site investigation is already well-advanced here – so much so that the US Fish & Wildlife Service recently stated: "... there are several published studies that have convincingly implicated Molycorp waste-rock as the cause of Red River water quality degradation, [so] we suggest that time and money may be better spent on investigations that would... generate valuable data necessary for remediation of the waste-rock piles...." Amigos Bravos' technical team has now put together a very thorough citizens' reclamation plan detailing pollution controls at source, to minimize the need for 'perpetual' water treatment and to restore as far as possible the self-sustaining ecosystem mandated by the NM Mining Act. We see this as theonly way of reversing the impacts on land and community caused by decades of abuse.
A Major Victory: On the Road to Cleanup
After two major lawsuits and seven years of relentless advocacy costing Amigos Bravos approximately $300,000, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has acknowledged the merits of our claims, and agreed to issue a new NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit which includes seeps emanating from the Questa Molycorp mine's waste rock piles. In the first lawsuit, Amigos Bravos sued Molycorp for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants to the Red River from numerous metal-loaded seeps hydrologically connected to 328 million tons of waste rock at the mine. In the second lawsuit, Amigos Bravos charged that EPA is required to regulate those same discharges. In the past EPA has denied that the waste rock piles constitute a point source of pollution, and has refused to regulate those discharges. On May 11, 2000, the same day EPA placed the Molycorp molybdenum mine in Questa on the draft National Priorities List for Superfund sites (see article on page 1), EPA met with Amigos Bravos to discuss the draft of a new NPDES permit, which regulates those pollutants Molycorp is allowed to discharge to the Red River. The proposed permit requires that Molycorp install seepage interception systems at two of the major seeps which contain elevated levels of sulfate, aluminum, iron, manganese, cobalt, copper, zinc, cadmium, and fluoride. The proposed permit will be released on May 23 for a sixty-day public comment period which will include a public hearing on July 13. Although the proposed permitestablishes that the seeps can be regulated, it falls far short of addressing the source of the problem as well as numerous other intermittent discharges. Please contact us for more information about how you can participate in the public hearing and comment on the draft permit.
Amigos Bravos Wins Concessions from EPA
On Friday May 19, Amigos Bravos released to the New Mexico Environment Department a three hundred and seventy eight (378) million dollar reclamation plan for the Molycorp mine in Questa. The 69-page report, entitled "The Amigos Bravos Full Reclamation and Closure Plan for the Molycorp molybdenum mine in Questa, New Mexico," was prepared in response to the New Mexico Water Quality Act, and the New Mexico Mining Act. The plan will be presented and discussed at the three-day NM Ground-Water Discharge Permit hearings to be held at the St. Anthony Parish Hall in Questa beginning on May 31. Molycorp as the owner and operator is required by state and federal statutes to eliminate and prevent pollution from the Questa mine site, to reclaim and close the facilities when they are no longer active, and to provide financial assurance to ensure reclamation and to protect the State against potential liability. Currently the mine is required by New Mexico's regulatory agencies to obtain approved discharge plans and reclamation and closure plans; it is required by the EPA to renew its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit; and EPA,with approval from the Governor of New Mexico,has placed the mine on its Draft National Priorities List for proposed Superfund projects. The Amigos Bravos Full Reclamation and Closure Plan provides a public interest alternative to address the long-term protection of human, Amigos Bravos Proposes Full Reclamation Plan wildlife and fisheries health by preventing as well as treating, water and air pollution emanating from Molycorp's Questa mining operations. The Full Reclamation and Closure Plan has been developed on Amigos Bravos' behalf by James R. Kuipers, PE, of the Center for Science in Public Participation. The plan is based on an evaluation of existing conditions, of state and federal regulatory requirements, and of available reclamation and closure options consistent with modern reclamation practice. Based on this evaluation a "full" reclamation and closure plan has been developed representing a comprehensive and precautionary approach to the necessary reclamation and closure measures and corresponding estimated costs. The Full Reclamation and Closure Plan proposes aggressive measures to achieve reclamation of the 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock, the 300-acre open pit, over 80 acres of underground mine subsidence areas, 640 disturbed acres for a tailings facility, and other mine related features. It proposes, consistent with industry and regulatory practice, that all mine facilities are regraded. A cover consisting of 2 feet of non- acid-generating (NAG) material overlaid with 18 inches of growth medium would be placed over potential acid-generating material, with 18 inches of growth medium placed over all other areas. Medium and high duration and intensity vegetation methods would be employed to ensure short-term erosion control and Stormwater controls would be employed to divert, capture, direct, and treat surface water runoff both actively and passively Groundwater seepage would be monitored, and, if necessary, intercepted, collected, and treated. In addition, the plan includes measures to address water treatment requirements in perpetuity. Dedicated wastewater treatment facilities would be constructed to process contaminated groundwater and stormwater runoff. The facilities would use advanced water treatment processes to remove contaminants to standards that would allow discharge of the effluent to surface water. The tailings line along the Red River would be removed, and areas of historic tailings spills remediated by removal and reclamation. Supplemental water to improve streamflow and dilute contamination of the river in the area of the mine would also be employed as an environmental mitigation. The total cost to perform the tasks as identified for the Full Reclamation and Closure Plan is estimated at $378 million. The cost estimate assumes that reclamation and closure tasks are performed by a third party under contract to the state and/or to federal agencies. The cost estimate includes approximately $250 million in direct costs for reclamation tasks, $90 million in indirect costs associated with those tasks, $26 million in costs for a water treatment trust fund, and $12 million for a Red River restoration fund. The estimated costs for this Plan do not include associated with those tasks, $26 million in costs for a water treatment trust fund, and $12 million for a Red River restoration fund. The estimated costs for this Plan do not include the additional cost of full mine and subsidence area backfilling and water treatment costs that could be higher than anticipated. The full extent of the subsidence areas is unknown at this time,but backfilling of subsidence areas is required under state statutes, and, in the final analysis, will significantly raise the final cost of reclamation to an unknown extent. At the same time, Molycorp could undertake performance of the required reclamation and closure tasks using its own resources, both significantly reducing the inferred costs and reducing the company's liability for those costs. Amigos Bravos, Inc., Friends of the Wild Rivers, is a public interest river advocacy organization with offices in Taos and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The mission of Amigos Bravos is: To return New Mexico's rivers and the Río Grande watershed to drinkable quality wherever possible, and to contact quality everywhere else; to see that natural flows are maintained and where those flows have been disrupted by human intervention, to see that they are regulated to protect and reclaim the river ecosystem by approximating natural flows; and to preserve and restore the native riparian and riverine biodiversity. Amigos Bravos supports the environmentally sound, sustainable traditional ways of life of indigenous cultures and holds that environmental justice and social justice go hand in hand. The organization, founded in 1988, includes many people from Questa and the local area among its 1,400 members. Members of Amigos Bravos use the local groundwater and the Red River for domestic purposes, irrigation of gardens and crops, stock watering, fishing, swimming, and other recreational activities. Amigos Bravos has been an active participant and has advocated with state and federal regulators and the mining company for responsible mining practices, including requiring adequate plans and financial assurance for reclamation and closure measures. The organization believes that the necessary measures should be taken by Molycorp, consistent with regulatory practice and technically proven practices, to prevent and eliminate mine and tailings facilities pollution (primarily of groundwater and surface water). The organization also believes that financial assurance, based on a conservative estimate of the state and/or federal agencies' potential cost to perform required reclamation and closure tasks, should be required of Molycorp in accordance with appli-cable state and federal regulations. The Molycorp Questa molybdenum mine, located in northern New Mexico, has been operating intermittently since the 1920s. The mine operations, consisting of a total disturbed area of approximately 2,080 acres, include waste rock dumps, an open pit, underground mine subsidence area, a tailings facility, and other facilities, roads and features. The mine's operational capacity is reportedly 20,000 tons per day, although the mine has not operated consistently at that level. According to the company, there may be economically justifiable reserves to support mining for at least another 20 years and higher levels of production are planned when the market for molybdenum improves. The Red River, prior to 1965, was characterized as a prime trout fishery with excellent waterquality. Strong evidence, both anecdotal and statistical, indicates that a self sustaining trout population in the mine's stretch of the river has virtually disappeared, and that water quality has been significantly degraded, coinciding with and as a result of mining activities. Molycorp's mining activities have the potential for enormous generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) and associated metal contaminants. AMD has polluted groundwater in the area of the mine and tailings facility that in turn is almost certainlycausing impacts to the Red River. Because of the nature and extent of the mining activities at Molycorp's Questa mine, maintenance of a hydrological drawdown cone (in the area of the mine) and seepage capture facilities (in the area of the tailings facility) will be necessary over the long-term. Treatment in perpetuity (for up 1000 years or more) will be necessary to ensure that pollution from the mine does not impact groundwater and surface water in the Red River even more than it does today.
Amigos Bravos Proposes Full Reclamation Plan
Please return to the Spring 2000 Bulletin Index.