Posts tagged: montana fly fishing

Montana Legislature Passes New Cyanide Leach Mining Law (Against the Wishes of the Public): You Gotta Send an Email To Stop It…

April 4, 2011, by 1 comment

The Horror that is the Montana Legislature has apparently voted the new cyanide leach mining bill (SB 306) through to the governor — despite the fact the state’s voters had twice specifically voted to do away with new cyanide leach mining operations (which are notorious for springing leaks and leaving messes for the taxpayers to clean up).

Wayne at Willfishforwork.com lays out all the murky details and ugly bedfellows, and if you don’t want to stare into that dark too long, simply do this:

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

Now, more from Willfishforwork:

What they don’t tell you is that the Golden Sunlight operation has already puked 19 million gallons (yeah, whoa! I didn’t even remember it being that big and that’s just what the legislature was probably hoping) on the surrounding landscape already (yes, that would be the Jefferson river very nearby). That whole fiasco was promptly cleaned up by the last republican led legislature, and I believe the governor at the time was republican Marc Racicot. Not that I’m implicating anyone, just sayin’.

But that’s all in the past right? WRONG!

….

And of course there is the issue of all the mines that might utilize this new cyanide leach for hire operation. Of course these will need to be new permitted operations. Currently there is only one possible customer for such an operation and that would be Dutch Gold Resources that is currently confirming test holes on a claim at the upper end of Rock Creek.[ed: emphasis mine] Life is full of coincidences isn’t it. But that doesn’t mean it would be limited to just that claim of course, it’s highly probable that in the current gold market that there might be many more claims that could be permitted if there is the potential to turn a profit. Basically, the potential gold bearing areas of Montana could end up looking like a maze with little blocks of Swiss cheese at their centers.

Wayne comes to what is not a surprising conclusion:

Now if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Montana SB 306 looks like a full blown mining bill that leaves the taxpayers in the same place with mining operations that they have always been- picking up the tab. Jobs? There are no jobs here, just a huge liability for more mining cleanups, legal litigation, infrastructure liabilities and a tortured landscape that taxpayers will have to live in and pay for while the mining companies take the profit elsewhere.

Those directions again?

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

See you online, Tom Chandler

Montana Supreme Court Refuses to Rehear Mitchell Slough Case, Good Guys Win

January 7, 2009, by 14 comments

The long-running Mitchell Slough case – where wealthy Montana landowners tried to bar public access to a Montana waterway and challenge Montana’s enlightened Stream Access Law – looks to be over.

And it appears the good guys won.

The Montana State Supreme Court refused to rehear the case, leaving in place a decision that should put wide, wide smiles on the faces of fly fishermen:

The Montana Supreme Court will not rehear the Mitchell Slough case.

In an order issued last week, the court turned down two petitions seeking a rehearing on the court’s ruling in November that the slough was a natural waterway and therefore subject to state law for streambed permitting and public access.

“It’s a done deal now except for the formalities,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park’s Chief Legal Council Bob Lane.

The 16-mile-long Mitchell Slough has been mired in controversy for years. The channel runs on the east side of the Bitterroot River between Hamilton and Stevensville through private property, including lands owned by 1980s rocker Huey Lewis.

The two petitions seeking a rehearing were filed by landowners who argued the Supreme Court overlooked material evidence when it issued its ruling on the slough’s status. Landowners argued – and two state district courts earlier agreed – that the slough had been dramatically altered over the years and was no longer a natural stream.

The Supreme Court disagreed and overturned two earlier state district court rulings.

Somedays you’re the trout, somedays you’re the stuck-in-the-shuck emerger. Today we’re all trout.

See you out of court, Tom Chandler.

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