One step closer to Montanore permit

The United States Forest Service intends to publish the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Draft Record of Decision for the Montanore mine project by the end of this month.

“It is our intention to place the legal notice on March 27,” said Lynn Haggerty, the forest service’s Project Lead Coordinator.

Haggerty is currently reviewing the documents in what is termed camera-ready format, essentially verifying the accuracy of the printing product prior to authorizing the final print. She said the verification should be complete today, and with an anticipated two-week turnaround for printing, the documents should be available to the public by March 27.

The goalposts have shifted slightly during the past few weeks, as the deadline for the camera-ready document was set for Feb. 27, with a targeted release set for mid-March.

The objection period lasts for 45 days, so if it begins as anticipated March 27, it will end in the middle of May. The forest service then has 45 days to respond to or mitigate the objections. Assuming the March 27 start date, the mitigation and response period will end around the first of July.

Following those timed phases, the forest service will then issue a final Record of Decision, which is expected to be the permit for the mine to begin development and operations. There is, however, no set time frame in which the forest service must issue the Record of Decision following the end of the objection/response phases.

Eric Klepfer, a project consultant for Montanore, said the delays were not significant enough to delay his anticipated September completion of the permitting process.

“If the forest service stays focused, they can hit that September timeline,” he said.

Forest service officials are unwilling to commit to any timeframe. Haggerty said the time needed to draft the final Record of Decision will be driven by what they see during the objection process.

Kootenai National Forest Supervisor Chris Savage agreed with that assessment, “I’m not when the final Record of Decision will be out, with most likely a revised Final Environmental Impact Statement. It really depends on what we see come out of the objection process.”

Klepfer remains cautiously optimistic. “We would hope their knowledge is more than thorough after this 10-year process and that they can move on quickly to a final Record of Decision,” he said.

The Record of Decision, however, isn’t the end of the issue. Once the decision is made, litigation can, and likely will, start.

Klepfer said he anticipates a lawsuit on the project.

“I think that’s a hard question to answer,” he said. “But my gut says somebody, somewhere is going to consider that kind of a challenge.”

Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck agrees.

“I hope it’s not the case. After 10 years of preparation and analysis, I hope it doesn’t happen. But I’ve been around this business long enough to know that this thing is going to get litigated,” Peck said.

Klepfer is confident Montanore will survive legal scrutiny. He praised the work of the forest service in their analysis and preparation.

“It seems to me the forest service has done a very thorough job over the past 10 years on this project,” he said.

Litigation could bring all of the forward momentum to a screeching halt, if a judge decides to issue an injunction on the project while the case winds its way through the court system.

“I hope it doesn’t happen, but we can’t say for sure one way or the other. We need to prepare for the worst, and this is the worst-case scenario. It’s certainly not what I want to see happen but there are organizations out there that will sue. They will do it regardless of how much information, how much data is out there, and how much time other people have spent on the project. They just do,” Peck said.

Klepfer echoed Peck’s sentiments.

“There are needs in Lincoln County. There are jobs on the table and I would hope nobody would want to jeopardize that with nuisance lawsuits,” he said.