Violations Cost Hecla $1.5 Million Water Quality Problems Involve Grouse Creek Mine
Hecla Mining Co. will spend $1.5 million more on a mine that will shut down in a few months after settling water quality violations Friday.
Hecla will pay a $21,250 fine - a fourth of what the Environmental Protection Agency asked for last August - for having more cyanide, mercury and solid particles (dirt) in the water coming from the mine than its permits allowed.
As part of the agreement, Hecla will need to spend $1.5 million for more water treatment systems. Hecla built more facilities to treat water coming from the mine on its own after reporting its violations to the EPA during the last two years.
The fines and new treatment plant are the latest chapter in a sad story for Hecla. Grouse Creek was to have been the star of Hecla’s growing set of gold mines, with hopes of producing 100,000 ounces for up to 10 years.
But after a year of mining, geologists discovered the grade of gold in the rock was only about half of what their original drilling tests had shown.
Mining will stop at Grouse Creek this spring, with the property put on a maintenance basis until more gold is found or until gold prices improve.
Hecla is already spending between $16 and $20 million to return the mine to its original state. The company took an accounting charge of more than $100 million in 1995, mostly from the disappointment at Grouse Creek.
Extraordinary rains in 1995 sent muddy water down from the mine and through the company’s water quality monitoring equipment.
The levels exceeded the water discharge permit. The EPA and Hecla disagree on just how many violations occurred, said Vicki Veltkamp, manager of communications for the company.
A pipe carrying crushed rock and diluted cyanide burst in August 1995, spilling into a nearby creek. The leak was fixed and at no time did the creek water exceed drinking water standards, Veltkamp said.
Water coming from the mine must be cleaner than drinking water.
Hecla environmental coordinators were puzzled when the EPA leveled fines against the company in August for violations that the company considered minor.
EPA officials in Boise said the water problems happened over a long enough period to warrant fines.
The two sides went about negotiating the settlement announced Friday.
“We felt good that they brought the fine down,” Veltkamp said Friday. “We’re going to do whatever it takes to reclaim the site, and if they want us to build another water treatment facility that’s what we’ll do.”
The mine won environmental awards in 1994 for creating salmon habitat in streams at the mine site.
Hecla must have the new treatment facilities working by May, according to the agreement.
The company had not set a date on which to stop mining at Grouse Creek.
, DataTimes