Northwest Program Director News Today

The Montana Tunnels mine near Jefferson City filed a petition Monday seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which raised questions about who will end up paying for reclamation.

A Montana judge has ruled that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) unlawfully approved the construction of the Black Butte Copper Mine near White Sulphur Springs.

The following is a press release from the Montana Environmental Information Center:

Enviro, tribal groups upset with Gianforte over Hecla mining decision Bureau of Land Management historical photo The Pegasus Mine at Zortman and last updated 2021-07-15 23:12:29-04 MISSOULA — Environmental and conservation groups, and some tribal leaders, are saying theyre "deeply disappointed" with the Gianforte administration for deciding not to use a recent ruling to press "bad actors" to clean up mine waste. A Gianforte spokesperson said the governor is simply empowering state agenci...

Enviro, tribal groups upset with Gianforte over Hecla mining decision Bureau of Land Management historical photo The Pegasus Mine at Zortman By: Dennis Bragg and last updated 2021-07-16 10:58:08-04 MISSOULA — Environmental and conservation groups, and some tribal leaders, are saying theyre "deeply disappointed" with the Gianforte administration for deciding not to use a recent ruling to press "bad actors" to clean up mine waste. A Gianforte spokesperson said the governor ...

Jake Bleich, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-3208 Andrea Zaccardi, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 854-7748 Bonnie Rice, Sierra Club, (406) 582-8365, ext. 1 Missoula, MT — The federal district court in Montana on Tuesday invalidated the federal government’s approval of the first phase of the Rock Creek Mine, a major copper and silver mine proposed beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwest Montana. The court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...

Victory: Ruling rejects company’s bid to rely on decades-old pollution standards to contaminate streams Contacts Bonnie Gestring, Earthworks, (406) 546-8386, bgestring@earthworksaction.org Derf Johnson, MEIC, (406) 581-4634, djohnson@meic.org Helena, MT — Yesterday in a victory for clean water, the Montana Supreme Court rejected a key pollution permit for the proposed Montanore silver-copper mine in the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness in Northwest Montana. Th...