Lawsuit targets Canadian gold miner's plan to destroy Idaho's Centennial Mountains

 

Advocates for the West has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Idaho Conservation League (ICL) and Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a five-year gold exploration project in the Centennial Mountains west of Yellowstone National Park, near the agricultural community of Kilgore in eastern Idaho.

The project, about 80 miles north of Idaho Falls on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, was overwhelmingly opposed in thousands of comments submitted to the agency last year for its potential to threaten water quality, wildlife, and the way of life for thousands of Idahoans.

Cyanide threatens Idaho's Snake River Plain aquifer.

The Centennial Mountains on the Idaho-Montana border are a primary source of fresh water for the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer (photo, right), which sustains the region's multi-billion-dollar farm economy.