Bureau of Land Management to Native Americans:
One god is just as good as another, right?

Take Action: Help Protect Mt. Tenabo's sacred springs

Click here to tell the BLM to go back to the drawing board and REALLY protect Mt. Tenabo's sacred springs.

Barrick Gold is mining for gold at Mt. Tenabo in Nevada’s Crescent Valley, a mountain sacred to the Western Shoshone in part because of the springs it contains. Each spring has its own unique spirits tied to the spring’s source.

When Barrick was given the go-ahead, a court limited groundwater pumping (necessary to keep the mine's pit dry) to protect Mt. Tenabo's springs. The court directed the federal Bureau of Land Management, which permits and regulates the Barrick mine, to come up with a plan that would permanently protect the Western Shoshone's sacred waters.

BLM recently released its new plan. In a nutshell: it doesn’t protect the springs. Instead, it allows them to be depleted so long as Barrick can bring water in from elsewhere.

In other words, BLM’s plan ignores what makes the springs sacred to the Western Shoshone who have continuously inhabited the region for thousands of years -- it ignores the reason that the court protected the springs in the first place.

TAKE ACTION: We need your help to make sure that the BLM protects Mt. Tenabo's sacred springs.

Tell BLM to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that actually protects the Western Shoshone’s sacred springs in and around Mt. Tenabo. It’s insult enough that the mine exists at all, allowing Barrick to destroy Tenabo’s holiness in the process would be a crime.

MORE INFO

Great Basin Resource Watch's Mt. Tenabo page has more background on this fight.

The Bureau of Land Management's page, for Barrick's Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. The actual draft SEIS is here.

The Western Shoshone's website

EARTHWORKS' page on the Western Shoshone's fight against the modern mining industry.

Subject:

Your Letter:

Dear Mr. Worthington -

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Cortez Hills Expansion Project Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (dSEIS), and urge the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to deliberate with great consideration on this very controversial project.

The permanent impacts of the project to the cultural and spiritual practices of the Western Shoshone is undeniable.  Mt. Tenabo has been, and continues to be, used by Western Shoshone people as a central part of their religious practices and world view.  Western Shoshone visit the mountain and the valley below (the location of the mine pit) for prayer ceremonies, gathering of sacred plants, fasting, and vision quests, among other uses.  The Mountain also contains Western Shoshone gravesites.  All of these values and uses will be destroyed by the Project.  In addition, the massive pumping of groundwater will likely dry-up culturally significant and sacred springs and streams on and around Mt. Tenabo.

I have read the draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement for the Cortez Hills Expansion project and I do not feel that the analysis is adequate in terms of the impacts from pumping the groundwater.  I understand that the water table will not recover completely, but I didn't see any discussion of that.  Is the BLM planning to maintain a water replacement procedure indefinitely?  What happens when the mine is closed up?  Who will be responsible for maintaining those springs that will not recover on their own?

I also do not agree that the mitigation plan of replacement of water from another well is the right thing to do.  It seems to me that any spring, especially when it has special significance from a cultural perspective, cannot be protected by just putting water into it from another source.  And from my experience in talking with Shoshone people this is their view as well.  My understanding is that the source of the water is important.   Will the water quality be the same?  How will the "different" water affect the plants, animals, and microbes that use that water.  I didn't see any analysis of this in the document.  The BLM should have an analysis of other mitigation strategies that would prevent the sources of the springs from being affected in the first place.

I was also alarmed at how much mercury would be released into the air as a result of this project – almost 1,800 pounds over the course of the mine.  The SEIS states, "The fraction of the maximum annual mercury emissions associated with the processing of Cortez refractory ore at Goldstrike would not contribute significantly to near-field mercury deposition," but it does not say how much this actually is.  The SEIS should state how much mercury this would be from year to year and explain why this amount is not significant.  Mercury is so toxic I think there should be a more complete discussion of amounts.  Can't mercury accumulate in the environment?  In looking over information about mercury I see where mercury can be released from other parts of the mine like the waste rock piles of heap leach pads.  Seems like this impact should have been analyzed as well especially given the significance of the Mt. Tenabo area in general.

Sincerely,

Christopher Worthington

Nevada Bureau of Land Management, Battle Mountain Field Office

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Bureau of Land Management to Native Americans:One god is just as good as another, right?

Christopher Worthington

Bureau of Land Management to Native Americans:
One god is just as good as another, right?