News was received by attorneys appealing issuance of the Part 31 groundwater discharge permit for Kennecott’s Eagle Mine project that Judge Manderfield has denied yet another appeal.
Mining expert Jack Parker, who conducted the initial review of the mine application, issued the following opinion on this decision:
If any knowledgeable regulatory geologist or engineer had read it carefully he/she would have rejected it in the year 2006.
One example is this: That the testholes bored to explore the surficial deposits were much too far apart, especially in these glacial deposits, which are unpredictable. North Jackson assumed that they could safely interpolate and extrapolate with holes several thousand feet apart. That is ridiculous.
They even omitted some holes which were available. Some of them, divulged later, showed that the “impermeable clay and silt layer C” was absent – thus not available to prevent infiltrating water from passing downward to the Lower Aquifer and to the mine. One such “window” in the impermeable layer is at the infiltration site.Another example concerns the flow of water through the rock above or in the mine. They did not test the most obvious suspects – the fracture zones tens of feet long exhibited in several diamond drill cores. See photos in several of my reports. For what reason if not to skew the results of the study ?
Once again – the courts and the public were deceived and no responsible parties, including KEMC and MDEQ, deny it.
Separate from the North Jackson effort KEMC declared that the infiltration system as built was significantly different from the original and DEQ accepted the statement and issued a permit. Actually the two systems are not significantly different. Both allow infiltration from perforated pipes laid on the ground – not injection – which would be under pressure. The major change was that the system is insulated with sheets of “rigid” foam, rather than the usual soil cover.
