The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Big risk for water and wallets
The High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA) is expressing concern with the lack of official permitting and bonding that is tied to the Mt. Emmons Water Treatment Plant.
The environmental organization sent a letter on Monday, May 13 to Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest (GMUG) supervisor Scott Armentrout asking the agency to officially permit the plant on Mt. Emmons being operated by U.S. Energy. HCCA is also requesting that a sufficient “bond” be collected from the operator in case it is needed to operate the plant if U.S. Energy stops running the operation. There is currently a $1,000 bond being held in escrow.
HCCA maintains that without a bond and authorization to operate, the public has no assurance that the plant is being operated properly nor of its future capability to safeguard Coal Creek. According to a statement from HCCA, “In October 2012, the Forest Service issued a decision agreeing with HCCA that the 1979 construction permit upon which U.S. Energy was relying to operate the plant was not valid. Unfortunately, the Forest Service decided at the same time that the permitting problem was moot in light of new the Plan of Operations [PoO] for mining, which had just been submitted.”
But HCCA doesn’t think that is safe enough and the recently released plan does nothing to assuage that fear. “We’ve been waiting for the final Plan of Operations to see if it really does address problems with permitting and bonding the plant. All it offers is a basic description of what’s going on there now, and vague plans for expanding it alongside a new mine. This is not enough to protect the public—it leaves both our clean waters and our pocketbooks at a huge risk,” explained Jeremy Rubingh, HCCA board member, in the statement.
HCCA reasoned in its seven-page letter to the Forest Service that by failing to properly authorize the ongoing activities of the WTP (water treatment plant), they are violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and are ignoring their own regulations, which require compliance with environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act.
“The bottom line is that there is no guarantee that U.S. Energy will operate and fund this plant forever,” said Jennifer Bock, HCCA’s water director, who signed the letter to the Forest Service. “The community deserves a real plan, vetted by the Forest Service on how the plant should operate and a reasonable bond to cover contingencies.”
According to HCCA’s letter to Armentrout, “It is now undisputed that [U.S. Energy’s] current operations on public land at the site, especially the WTP and related and nearby facilities, are not covered by any valid authorization. To date, however, the USFS has yet to issue any written authorization for the operation of the WTP and related facilities… The mere submittal of a PoO for mining by a private company does not serve as authorization to conduct operations on public land.”
HCCA understands that the WTP is necessary as part of U.S. Energy’s and the Forest Service’s, duty to protect water quality and public resources. “However, that is not an excuse to bypass public review under NEPA and other federal laws,” HCCA maintains.
The organization also makes the case that since it costs nearly $2 million every year to run the WTP, the $1,000 bond is inadequate. The letter reminds the federal agency, “As stated in the Forest Service’s bonding policy: Bonds should address all FS costs that would be incurred in taking over operations because of Operator default.”
According to GMUG National Forest external affairs officer Lee Ann Loupe, the agency received the HCCA letter Monday and “The Forest Service is reviewing it and discussing a response.” No time frame has been set to formulate that response.
Bock said if the Forest Service decides to have U.S. Energy go through a comprehensive review process to obtain permitting, the plant would remain in operation during the process to comply with the Clean Water Act.
U.S. Energy did not respond to a request for comment.
In a separate but related action, HCCA is pursuing litigation to force the state of Colorado to require bonding for water treatment as part of its reclamation requirements for the Mt. Emmons mining project.
