Public Comments Sought on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Stibnite Gold Project
McCall, Idaho, August 14, 2020 – The Payette and Boise National Forests are seeking comments on the Midas Gold Idaho, Inc, proposed Stibnite Gold Project’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). The DEIS can be found on the project webpage at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=50516 and is expected to be available on August 14, 2020.
Due to current health precautions associated with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Forest Service is providing alternative measures for conducting public engagement. A Virtual public Meeting Room using the open house format has been designed to conduct public engagement and solicit feedback on the Stibnite Gold Project draft environmental impact statement. The Virtual Public Meeting Room will be available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=50516&exp=meetingnoticeinfo and will be open on August 24, 2020 at 12:00p.m. through the public comment period.
The proposed Stibnite Gold Project is a surface mining project proposed by Midas Gold. The project is located east of McCall, Idaho, in Valley County, on the Payette National Forest, with a portion of the project on the Boise National Forest. Approximately 500 acres of patented mining claims and 2,900 acres of unpatented claims on National Forest System (NFS) lands are involved.
The Forest Service has prepared this DEIS as required by the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA). Preliminary issues identified include access and transportation; fisheries, wildlife, and threatened and endangered species; surface and groundwater; post-closure site management and land use; cultural and historic resources, including Tribal rights and interests; public health and safety; recreation; roadless and wilderness resources; and socioeconomics.
Midas Gold is estimating a project life of approximately 21-28 years, including redevelopment and construction (2-3 years), mining and processing (12-15 years), initial closure and reclamation (2-3 years), and post-closure and monitoring (5-7 years). Their plan of operations includes mining from two historic pits and one new pit to recover gold, silver and antimony; reprocessing of historic tailings; back-filling of one pit; reconstruction of stream channels and wetlands, and restoring fish passage in the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River through the legacy Yellow Pine pit.
The Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS that was published on June 5, 2017 indicated the possible need for plan amendments to address inconsistencies with Forest Plan standards, but the amendments that would be needed were not identified at that time. The details of the proposed amendments can be found in Appendix A of the DEIS. The proposed plan amendments are expected to be approved in the decision document for the Stibnite Gold Project and the plan amendments would only apply to this project.
Regarding the decision to be made as a part of this NEPA process, the Payette Forest Supervisor is required to comply with the General Mining Act of 1872, and the Mining and Mineral Policy Act of 1970 that allow mining to take place on NFS lands. Forest Service Regulations 36 CFR 228, subpart A provide for the agency to review and approve a plan of operations that includes:
- Provision for operations to be conducted so as where feasible to minimize adverse environmental impacts to surface resources on NFS lands.
- Measures to provide for surface reclamation where practical.
- Measures for operations to meet and comply with applicable federal and state air and waste quality, and solid waste standards and requirements.
How to Comment and Timeframe
The Environmental Protection Agency will publish a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Stibnite Gold Project DEIS in the Federal Register on August 14, 2020. A legal notice will also be published on August 14, 2020 in the newspaper of record, The Idaho Statesman, for public notification of the proposed plan amendments. Mailed and electronic comments concerning this action will be accepted for 45 days, with a 15-day extension following that date. The publication date of the NOA in the Federal Register is the exclusive means for calculating the comment period for a proposed action documented in a draft environmental impact statement. Those wishing to comment should not rely upon dates or timeframe information provided by any other source.
Mailed or electronic comments will be accepted; however, electronic submission of comments is encouraged. Mailed comments must be submitted to Linda Jackson, Forest Supervisor, Payette National Forest, 500 North Mission Street Building 2, McCall, Idaho 83638-3805. Be advised that our offices are minimally staffed in response to COVID-19 and hand-delivered comments are not being accepted at this time.
Electronic comments must be submitted in a common digital format such as plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), Word (.doc, .docx) or PDF (.pdf) to https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/CommentInput?Project=50516. All comments, including names and addresses when provided, are placed in the record and are available for public inspection and copying. The public may inspect comments received online via the public reading room at: https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public/ReadingRoom?project=50516.
The decision to approve the proposed project will be subject to the objection process identified in 36 CFR part 218 Subparts A and B. Only those who submit timely and specific written comments, as defined in §218.2, regarding the proposed project and project-specific plan amendments during a public comment period established by the responsible official are eligible to file an objection per §218.5. It is the responsibility of all individuals and organizations to ensure that their comments are received in a timely manner. For objection eligibility, each individual or representative from each entity submitting timely and specific written comments must either sign the comments or verify identity upon request per §218.24(b)(8). As provided by 36 CFR 219.59(b), the administrative review process of 36 CFR 218 also applies to the project-specific plan amendments.
The DEIS, NOA, legal notice and other project information is available on the project webpage at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=50516. The project webpage provides you with tools to engage in the public comment process. For additional information, please contact Brian Harris, Payette Forest Public Affairs Officer, 208-634-6945, brian.d.harris@usda.gov
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