Copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.
Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
June 15, 1999
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 1483 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY June 15, 1999 DAVID KLIGMAN SENATE ENERGY &
NATURAL RESOURCES FORESTS AND PUBLIC LANDS MANAGEMENT CROWN JEWEL MINE
BODY:
Testimony of David Kliegman June 15, 1999
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Forests and
Public Lands Management Good afternoon Chairman and committee members. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify before this committee regarding the March 25,
1999 letter form the Department of Interior. My name is David Kliegman, my
family and I have lived in the Okanogan Highlands, near the site of the proposed
mine site for nearly 20 years. For several years I worked as a physical therapy
technician in the public schools in our valley. I left that job to pursue a
lifelong interest in woodworking. It was about this same time that news of a
large scale, open-pit, cyanide-leach gold mine in our area became a significant
concern for me and many of my neighbors. As I learned about the implications of
this type of mining I was compelled to get involved. I didn't know at the time
was the level of personal commitment it would take to prevent a powerful
multi-national corporation from simply rolling over our highland hills. I now
work as director of Okanogan Highlands Alliance, a local public interest
organization, with statewide and national membership. After over eight years of
extensive consultation and study of the legal and technical aspects of the
proposed Crown Jewel mine, we have concluded that the risk to public health,
safety and the environment outweighs the benefits. We also discovered that the
mine plan is illegal. This mine is strongly opposed by the conservation
community. Battle Mountain Gold Co. (BMG) will no doubt explain to you how many
state permits they have obtained. They will paint a rosy picture for you of how
they have done everything the agencies have asked to protect the environment. I
am here to tell you another story. This mine proposal has been controversial
from the start. BMG has consistently overwhelmed underfunded regulatory agencies
and exerted political pressure to obtain agency management approvals over staff
objections. The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) staff person
responsible for the Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification for
the Crown Jewel Project, asked to be taken off the project two weeks before the
approval of the Agency Certification, because Ecology's management had decided
to issue the 401 despite the companies failure to provide reasonable assurances
that this project would meet water quality standards. Ecology management failed
to adopt the permit requirements recommended by staff that would include
contingent treatment for predicted water quality violations from leachate
discharge under the waste rock. The problem was compounded because the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not receive a copy of the permit to
peer review until just prior to it's issuance. The company threatened a lawsuit
against Ecology if the permit was delayed any further, even though much of the
delay has been caused by waiting for the company itself to provide necessary
documents. Local state legislators, who serve on committees that provide funding
for the Ecology, exerted political pressure to expedite the permitting process
as well. The water quality permit that was approved under this intense pressure
is currently under appeal. As you can see from the excerpts from the water
quality permit I have included, it in no way provides assurances that water
quality standards will be met. To the contrary, it clearly states that the mine
is predicted to violate water quality standards. How many ways can you interpret
Section E of the permit? Aside from the water quality, BMG's water rights would
violate the rights of downstream water users with senior rights. New water
rights in the basin have been denied due to over allocation since the 1950's.
BMG's open pit would permanently change the hydrology of the area. BMG's
approach, to augment depleted streams with a Rube Goldberg like contraption that
would discharge contaminated pit-lake water into depleted streams, is
unsatisfactory and another tribute to political interference with a technical
process. If this mine proposal could have passed all the laws and permit
regulations, it would have gone forward long ago. But BMG has continually tried
to get by with the minimum environmental protection and used it's wealth and
influence to create access to the political process and gain exceptions to the
laws for this flawed proposal (as described above). The latest political
maneuver, to attach an exemption for this controversial mine proposal from one
of the few limitations in the 1872 mining law, in Conference Committee to the
Emergency Funding bill for hurricane victims and the war in Kosovo, has rightly
inspired a national uproar. BMG's proposal must pass legal scrutiny, not receive
special favors and exemptions from the law if it wants to develop a mine. This
special exemption for a single multinational gold corporation shows contempt for
the laws and for a fair and open political process. The power of Congress should
be used judiciously, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
The Forest Service's (FS) approval of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the mine
was premised on the fact that BMG had valid mining claims. It was clearly stated
that the approval should in no way be construed as an implicit approval of their
claims. The Department of Interior had to examine the validity of the mining
claims before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and FS could approve a Plan of
Operations (PoO) for the mine project. For BMG to have progressed as it did was
a miscalculation on the part of their lawyers and management and should not be
at the expense of the American people or the local residence near Buckhorn
Mountain. Since the plan BMG was flagrantly over the legal limit of
millsites, the Interior and Agriculture Departments were acting
completely within the law to deny the PoO and revoke the ROD. Battle Mountain
Gold Co. (BMG) does not need emergency relief. To cry crocodile tears and ask
favors of congress is indefensible. Feigned ignorance of the law is not a
defense. Too often corporations are treated with deference because of the power
and influence they wield. They have the resources to wield inordinate influence
in Congress outweighing the public interest and right to fairness. There is no
doubt that there are aspects of the local economy are challenged due to the weak
Canadian dollar, poor return on apple crops and a decline in resource
extraction. The rest of the story is that the overall economy of the area has
been growing steadily even though the resource extraction industries have been
declining. Although change is never easy most people have embraced the
inevitability of it and are taking advantage of the excellent dislocated worker
programs and are learning new skills and helping our community transition.
Although the mystique of investing in gold mining and the idea of getting rich
quick has blinded some, most people recognize that this type of venture is
always risky and not a reliable basis for long term economic stability. The
incredible beauty of the Okanogan Highlands and it's proximity to wilderness and
natural areas has always attracted people to this area and been a part of the
local economy. With the steady growth in our overall economy and rapid expansion
of technology, has come an increased demand for the aesthetic and recreational
resources that the natural environment offers. The Crown Jewel gold mine has
been extremely controversial because it would blast off the top of one of the
highest mountains in the picturesque Okanogan Highlands and leave a toxic lake
in an open- pit in the place of five clean, healthy, headwater, steams. It would
also dump 100 acres of tailings 250' deep behind an earthen dam on top of one of
those creeks. Okanogan Highlands Alliance is working with community members to
create a model for sustainable economic development. A case in point is this
bottled water. The proposed gold mine would use over 2,000 gallons of clean
water for every ounce of gold it produced. However the price of gold is well
below $300 per ounce. The economics are simple, as the demand for and the cost
of water is on the rise, gold prices are steadily falling. Even at $1 a gallon
pure water is more precious than gold. On behalf of the Okanogan Highlands
Alliance, I implore you to consider that one of the most valuable things we
could leave our children and future generations is a clean and healthy
environment. The need for a mining law that conforms to the needs of the twenty
first century is apparent to everyone. Mining can be done in a way that protects
the environment and for the mining industry to prosper, it needs to recognize
the need for changes in the way it mines. Please help to provide a forum for
fair and open debate on the subject of mine reform.
LOAD-DATE: June 17, 1999