Hecla complaint against DEQ moved to Helena
The fate of a complaint Hecla Mining Company filed in Lincoln County against the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and its director, Tom Livers, will now be determined in Lewis and Clark County.
A motion for change of venue was filed April 6 by Bozeman attorney James Goetz on behalf of the DEQ and Livers. On April 18, Judge Matt Cuffe of 19th Judicial District Court in Libby granted the motion, sending the case to First Judicial District Court in Helena.
Hecla filed the complaint for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief on March 23, following the DEQ’s decision that the mining company and its CEO, Phillips Baker, are in violation of the “bad actor” provision Montana’s Metal Mine Reclamation Act.
The provision “prohibits a person from conducting mining or exploration activities in Montana if that person was a principal or controlling member of a business entity for which DEQ received bond proceeds,” Livers has said.
Baker previously was vice president and chief financial officer of Pegasus Gold Incorporated, whose Zortman-Landusky, Basin Creek and Beal Mountain mines polluted the environment. Pegasus eventually filed for bankruptcy, leaving the state responsible for tens of millions of dollars of ongoing cleanup costs.
At stake for Hecla are exploration licenses and operating permits for two mines — Montanore and Rock Creek — the company seeks to develop near Libby.
When DEQ notified Hecla and Baker of the violation on March 20, it gave them 30 days to give notice of intent to comply. The DEQ has stated Hecla and Baker can comply either by paying all necessary costs the DEQ incurs in reclaiming the Zortman-Landusky, Basin Creek and Beal Mountain Mine Sites, or by demonstrating that Baker is no longer mining or conducting exploration activities in Montana.
Luke Russell, Hecla’s vice president of external affairs, has characterized the state’s actions as “a clear misapplication of the law” and “a huge stretch,” contending that Baker “was not the controlling entity at Pegasus” and is not the applicant for the mining permits for Montanore mine near Libby and Rock Creek mine near Noxon.
An affidavit given by Baker and filed in 19th Judicial District Court on April 5 makes clear, Russell said Wednesday, that Baker no longer worked at Pegasus Gold when the DEQ received bond proceeds.
Livers has said the DEQ “reached our decision based on careful deliberation of the legal issues” and was “prepared to defend it.”
Hecla is the parent of the three companies listed as plaintiffs in the complaint: Montanore Minerals Corp., Troy Mine and RC Resources. The latter company, which seeks to develop Rock Creek mine, is unlike the other two in that its interests are in Sanders County, not Lincoln County — one factor in Cuffe’s decision that Lincoln County was not the proper venue for RC Resources, according to Cuffe’s order.
Another factor in Cuffe’s decision was that the complaint was against the State of Montana.
As a result of the change of venue, Cuffe wrote in his order granting it, 19th Judicial District Court “can make no ruling on the remaining motions.”
Those motions include Hecla’s motion for preliminary injunction, filed March 27, and Earthjustice’s motion to intervene as defendants, filed April 4.
The Earthjustice motions seeks to add as defendants Earthworks, Montana Environmental Information Center, Clark Fork Coalition, Rock Creek Alliance, Save Our Cabinets and Montana Conservation Voters.
The proposed intervenors include the conservation groups that approached the DEQ late last October, alleging the “bad actor” provision violation and asking for the suspension of permits for the two mines.
The Lincoln County Commission and 56 Montana legislators have penned letters to Gov. Steve Bullock, showing support for Hecla and asking that the state reconsider its action.