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Montana Trout Unlimited Action Alert


March 28, 2011



We need your help TODAY to protect Montana's coldwater fisheries from
acid-mine drainage!


The Montana Legislature is considering legislation that would overturn
Montana's voter-approved ban on new open-pit cyanide leach mining!


Please, help us stop this ill-advised legislation!



Water Pollution from
Zortman-Landusky Mine
SB 306 creates an end-run around Montana's popular voter-approved ban
on new open-pit cyanide leach mines. The objective of SB 306, which
has passed the Montana Senate and sponsored by Sen. Terry Murphy
(R-Cardwell), is to once again create new open-pit mines with
associated pollution and mountains of wastes - but now the ore would
be trucked on public roads to the cyanide-leaching facilities that
were grandfathered under the state ban. If SB 306 passes, large
open-pit mines -- with associated acid-mine drainage, metals-laced
pollution and operations that deplete ground and surface water -- or
even clusters of small, poorly regulated mines, could open in places
like the Blackfoot and Rock Creek drainages, where industry is
interested in mining low-grade ore bodies. SB 306 would enable new,
damaging mines that will produce wastes and pollution. The ore would
then be trucked to existing cyanide-leach facilities like the Golden
Sunlight Mine in Whitehall, which has its own history of environmental
degradation. Without the use of cyanide, the mining of low-grade,
pollution-ridden ore bodies and the devastation it creates would not
occur. But today's gold prices make hauling ore long distances to
cyanide processing facilities economically attractive.



Remember, Montana voters already SAID NO TWICE to the combination of
open pits and cyanide. And for good reason. This failed combination
has resulted in devastated landscapes, polluted water, harmed
fisheries and taxpayer funded cleanups.



WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The Montana House of Representatives will debate SB 306 this week.
Contact your House Representative and tell him or her to OPPOSE SB
306. You can find your representative's email by clicking here, OR
call 444-4800 and leave them a message. If you don't know who your
House Representative is go here.
Tell your Representative to vote against SB 306 because:

Voters overwhelmingly banned new open-pit mines that use cyanide
leaching in 1998. In 2004, Montanans also resoundingly rejected an
initiative that sought to repeal the ban. We already said no twice to
this failed mining technology!
Despite industry claims, the ban has not diminished mining jobs in
Montana. According to a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, more people
are employed in mining in Montana now than before the ban: 4,111 in
1997 and 4,735 in 2009. We don't need this failed mining method to
have mining jobs.
The history of open-pit mines that use cyanide-leach processing has
created huge environmental liabilities for the public. Cleanup costs
at the closed Zortman-Landusky mine have totaled $56 million to date,
with no end in site. Taxpayers have already spent $13.5 million on
cleanup there, including $1.5 million annually to treat acidic
pollution. The shelved Beal Mountain Mine in the upper Clark Fork
watershed is a time bomb. It is leaking toxic cyanide compounds and
selenium, poisoning trout and groundwater. Taxpayers have shelled out
nearly $9 million for cleanup so far, and Forest Service staff
estimate it could cost another $47 million to fix.
Mining companies are eyeing low-grade ore bodies all over Montana,
including the headwaters of the Blackfoot River, in upper Rock Creek,
the headwaters of the Clark Fork River, in a key tributary of the Big
Hole River, and in other watersheds that harbor important trout
populations. These waters are simply too important to Montana's
culture and economy to put at risk by reviving the failed technology
of open-pit, cyanide-leach mining.


Clean water and trout are simply too important to Montana. Tell your
Montana House Representative to SAY NO TO SB 306!




Montana Trout Unlimited
phone: 406-543-0054