Published: October 23, 2017 |

North Fork Smith River.
[Click image to enlarge]

In 2012, Red Flat Nickel Corp., a British mining company, proposed exploratory drilling within the North Fork’s watershed.

Red Flat officials said they wanted to determine the feasibility of building an open pit mine for nickel, cobalt, chromium and scandium.

“These are very important minerals just about everyone uses on a daily basis for phones, computers, and lots of other things in everyday life,” Obie Strickler, a spokesman for Red Flat, said in a 2015 interview with the Statesman Journal.

“The project would create a high economic benefit and there’s value to doing it (in the United States) because we have tougher environmental rules.”

A controversial mining proposal in southwest Oregon could get a fresh life after a Utah lawmaker asked the Trump administration to reconsider a set of environmental rules.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, contends regulations enacted by the Obama administration to protect several iconic rivers in Oregon and others nationwide were “illegal” and “inconsistent with national security interests.”

Bishop, the House Natural Resources committee chair, asked in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for a complete review of “mineral withdrawals,” or mining bans, from the last eight years. 

His request could reignite a British mining company’s effort to build a nickel mine near the headwaters of the North Fork Smith River, a stream known for recreation, unique habitat and drinking water on the Oregon and California state line. 

A television feature showcasing the North Fork Smith, produced by Oregon Field Guide and the Statesman Journal, airs at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Oregon Public Broadcasting. It re-airs at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 22. It also can be watched online at opb.org/television/programs/ofg after it airs Thursday. 

Oregon and California lawmakers have denounced Bishop’s request, saying it is driven by “special interests” intent on reversing rules approved by local governments and residents.

“This is an egregious overstep by Washington,” Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio said in a news release. “The prohibition on mining on the Smith River and the headwaters of Hunter Creek and Pistol River has broad, overwhelming support.

“Reopening this area to allow a foreign company to strip mine our public lands without paying American taxpayers hardly any royalties would devastate surrounding economies and threaten critical drinking water sources.”

Red Flat’s proposal ignited a firestorm of criticism from conservation groups, politicians and communities that get drinking water from the Smith.

The plan was debated at meetings in Curry and Del Norte counties. Public comments overwhelmingly opposed mining in the area, according to U.S. Forest Service records.

No exploratory drilling was conducted, and federal and state rules aimed at killing the plan were enacted.

On the state level, Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission voted in July to designate the North Fork an Outstanding Resource Waters, a classification that likely wouldn’t allow for mining in the watershed.

On the federal level, the Obama administration implemented a “mineral withdrawal” on 100,000 acres in Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The move blocked new mining claims in watersheds of the North Fork Smith, Rough and Ready Creek, 17 miles of the Chetco River and the headwaters of Hunter Creek and Pistol River.

Bishop said the withdrawals were not justified under the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, which requires fair market value of the use of public lands and their resources.

“The two projects affected by this illegal withdrawal are believed to hold quantities of ... nickel, scandium and cobalt,” Bishop wrote. “Today, the United States imports 100 percent of our scandium (mostly from China), 76 percent of our cobalt and more than 90 percent of our nickel requirements thus making this withdrawal inconsistent with national security interests.”

Opponents, however, say a mine would poise a major threat to pristine rivers that support local economies and provide drinking water. They say the mineral withdrawal went through a comprehensive process.

“This new congressional request to undo the Smith River mining ban threatens decades of work by the many people who depend on the Smith River each day and who finally achieved much-needed protections for this watershed this year,” California Rep. Jared Huffman said in a news release.

“We cannot place the profits of foreign mining companies above my constituents’ livelihood and basic right to clean water and healthy salmon runs. The Trump administration should leave the Smith River alone.”

Television feature on the wild North Fork Smith River

What: An Oregon Field Guide episode on the North Fork Smith River, a famously unique and clear river in a remote area of Oregon and California.

When: 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Oregon Public Broadcasting. It re-airs 6:30 p.m., Oct. 22.

Online: The episode can be watched online at opb.org/television/programs/ofg

Source: Statesman Journal

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