Officials support Montanore Project, seek answer to delay in approval
Letter to the Editor,
An open letter to Secretary Vilsack and Secretary Jewell:
Some of us wrote to your Departments on June 22, 2012, about the excessive ongoing delays with the federal permitting reviews by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service concerning the Montanore Project located in Lincoln County, Montana, within the Kootenai National Forest.
Yet, many months later, this important job-creating project continues to stagnate, and the people of Lincoln County, Montana, which overwhelmingly support this project, continue to wonder when the federal agencies will reach a decision on this project.
As you know, Montanore would develop a substantial underground copper-silver deposit, which previously was verified as a valuable mineral deposit by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management minerals specialists.
The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the Forest Service in February 2009 estimated that this project would provide full employment for 450 people at full production, with an annual payroll of $12 million during the production phase of operations. Indirect economic benefits would be much greater.
Incredibly, the Forest Service initiated the NEPA process on this project by publishing a notice in the Federal Register on July 14, 2005, on the Montanore Project stating that the “draft EIS is expected May 2006, and the final EIS is expected by January 2007.”
Yet, the final EIS has still not been issued.
In addition, the Forest Service has not yet been able to complete consultation under the Endangered Species Act with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the assessment of the project’s impact on wildlife species, despite years of studies and reviews.
Unemployment remains a pressing concern in our nation, especially in rural areas such as Lincoln County. The communities in Montana, such as Lincoln County, have been forced to watch their young people flee the state in search of jobs in other states, far away from family.
We find it astounding that this project has continued to not receive a policy prioritization, and that the creative efforts to expedite the permitting process have failed to materialize.
We ask that you both meet with us as soon as possible to address the status of this project and present us with an outline of an expedited time frame for final action this year.
In addition, we request that the Regional Forester and her staff work with us to set up regular updates with our offices so that we can be informed of the timetable and all remaining steps in the permitting processes.
We thank you for your careful attention to this matter and look forward to your response.
— Steve Daines,
Doc Hastings,
Mike Simpson,
Doug Lamborn,
Cathy McMorris
Rodgers.