Local News

Kinross To Appeal PCHB Ruling

Aug 07, 2015

On Thursday we reported that the Pollution Control Hearings Board ruled last week, that it is reasonable to require Crown Resources Corp. to ensure that the water surrounding Buckhorn Mine near Chesaw is as clean as it was before mining started eight years ago.

The July 30 ruling by the was in response to an appeal by Crown Resources and its parent company, Kinross Gold, disputing provisions in a water quality permit issued by the state Department of Ecology in February 2014.

Deana Zakar, Community and Government Relations Specialist for Kinross said Crown is extremely disappointed and disagrees with the decision of the PCHB and will be appealing the decision.

Zakar said, There are a number of key flaws in the permit that have left us with no alternative but to pursue legal action because various terms of the revised permit are unreasonable and based on faulty science.

She said, among other things, the new permit contains compliance limits that are below natural background levels and requires water from areas essentially untouched by our operations to be captured and treated. The new permit is fundamentally unworkable. Zakar said, In its current form, it poses significant and potentially insurmountable challenges for the mine to achieve compliance.

The ruling against Kinross is the latest in a list of water quality issues that have plagued the mine since it opened in 2007, including a $395,000 fine from the Department of Ecology in 2012 for repeated and continuing water quality violations. In their ruling, the PCHB noted that in the first five years, the state agency issued six notices of violation, two civil penalties and six administrative orders.

The ruling also says that Crown Resources has made several changes to its operations to address water quality issues since 2007.

Zakar said, “We take environmental protection and corporate responsibility very seriously at our operation.” She said, “In recent years, we have made numerous procedural and technical improvements in our water management system, including increasing treatment capacity and installing more stormwater controls, dewatering wells and monitoring wells to protect water quality at Buckhorn.”