Avon area locals raise concerns about exploratory drilling
Laura Lundquist
AVON (Missoula Current) - As the line of people waiting to sign in Friday night at the Avon Community Hall started to grow, community leader Jeff Janke realized the 30 chairs he’d set out wouldn’t be enough. He needed almost three times that many for the 74 people who participated in the hastily called meeting to discuss the proposed mine exploration of the Blue Copper Project 6 miles northeast of town.
“I didn’t think there’d be this many,” Janke said as he opened up the meeting. “But what we’re going to do is find out information on the core drilling that’s going to be taking place on Snowshoe-Ophir, and how it affects the water, the grazing, the hunting, the fishing and recreation. I read the environmental assessment - it’s 71 pages. And I didn’t know a whole lot when I got done reading it. It might be the way I read, I don’t know.”
Based on some of the audience comments and questions over the next 90 minutes, Janke wasn’t the only one unfamiliar or confused about the assessment. So, Derf Johnson, Montana Environmental Information Center deputy director, rose to give an overview of the project and to highlight some of the questions he had after reading the environmental assessment that Hans Oaks, U.S. Forest Service Helena Ranger District geologist, published on June 2.
The Blue Copper Project - proposed by Falcon Copper Corporation, a subsidiary of Lion Copper and Gold Corporation - is a large-scale copper, gold, silver and tungsten exploration operation near the Continental Divide approximately 6 miles northeast of Avon. If the project is approved, exploration drilling using up to five drill rigs at a time would occur over five years, creating up to 127 drill pads in eight regions of the 10,816-acre project area, according to the environmental assessment. This would disturb approximately 49 acres on Forest Service land and 8 acres on Bureau of Land Management land.
Falcon Copper Corp. has already done some exploration on the site. In August 2024, Helena District Ranger Katherine Bushnell issued a decision memo allowing Falcon Copper Corp. to conduct an initial round of exploration drilling on 12 drill pads and surveys in three areas along Forest Service Road 708. Since that project was short-term and along the road, Bushnell used a categorical exclusion to exclude public participation in 2024.
In the past, the Forest Service might have gone through more of a public process with the current one that has more than 10 times the number of drill pads as before. But last August, the Trump administration gave the Blue Copper Project a FAST-41 designation, which means the Forest Service streamline the process, which results in minimal oversight.
As a result, the agency is allowing the public 30 days to comment on the proposal and has denied a request for an extension. The public has until July 2 to submit comments or questions, even though most know little of the proposal. So Friday's meeting was organized partly to substitute for the meetings the Forest Service used to hold on projects proposed for public land. MEIC and other participating organizations - Montana Trout Unlimited and Helena Hunters and Anglers - hired a court reporter to make a transcript of the meeting to submit to the Forest Service so the people could be heard.f
Some of the questions involved water because the company plans to use up to 24,000 gallons per day to cool the drills. Snowshoe, Carpenter and Ophir creeks are headwaters of the upper Clark Fork River, which has no new water rights available so the company must buy existing rights. One of two water rights they have is a domestic well so the company would have to request a change of use. Some locals wondered if the project would diminish the water in their wells or the streams while others scoffed, saying 24,000 gallons per day wasn’t that much water.
Some worried that their water might be contaminated if the liners of the drill pad sumps fail and toxic water leaks out. A man who said he worked at the Colstrip power plant brought up the liners of the coal ash ponds that failed and ended up polluting Rosebud Creek.
“The ranchers down Rosebud Creek had a lawsuit against the power plant because of the lined ponds that leaked over the years,” the man said. “I’m not for or against this either way, but I would say to use some caution in this to make sure our water isn’t affected.”
Some were worried about the increased traffic. The company plans to use approximately 41 miles of road, including constructing 3 miles of new road. One rancher who lives along Snowshoe Creek Road said he’s already seeing unfamiliar trucks heading up the road. He’s worried about mining employees hitting his cattle, which often get out onto the road. A woman seconded his concern, saying nonlocals aren’t careful of livestock.
“That kind of travel on the road will affect us. To say that it isn’t going to be a problem - our ranch is separated by the county road. We already have people that drive way too fast as it is. So it is a problem,” the woman said.
One man from Garrison repeatedly countered many of the locals' concerns, saying 25 mining employees traveling the roads everyday isn’t a big increase and that they wouldn’t be drilling all 127 pads at once. He said he had a mine that operated above his property and he was never negatively affected. He predicted that the mining company would likely improve the roads to get their rigs up to their sites.
“What are we going to do if we don’t do any mining in this country? Do you think we ought to keep buying everything from China?” the Garrison man said. “Everybody can’t say I don’t want that mine in my area, because then, you’re not going to have anything. This county has lost almost every employer that it has ever had. You need jobs here.”
As part of the streamlined process, the Forest Service conducted an environmental assessment instead of a more rigorous environmental impact statement. Many people asked what difference an environmental impact statement would make and whether it would provide more accountability. Janke said an EIS would flesh out the details that people were asking about.
“The biggest difference: rather than ‘as needed’, an EIS would spell out what would happen. Why and what. And then who decides what’s ‘as needed?’ It’s too vague,” Janke said. “I have no problem with their initial 12 holes with an EA. Because it doesn’t affect that much, in my opinion. But when you have 120 pads and five years, it makes a difference.”
A member of the audience suggested a show of hands of those who wanted an EIS. Hands went up, and Janke counted 56 as he went through the hall.
In addition to submitting comments asking for an EIS, Johnson told the people to mention their personal concerns such as the road going through their ranch or their cattle on the road.
“Under the 1872 Mining Law, mining takes precedence over everything. Grazing? Recreation? Water quality, wildlife? Mining rules the day. Under the 1872 Mining Law, that is the charter of the Forest Service and they can only condition it reasonably. They cannot prohibit that activity,” Johnson said. “But submit comments. If you raise issues, it could change the permit. I would encourage you to be engaged - it might be your only chance to jump on this exploration process.”
Helena District Ranger Kathy Bushnell and former Lion and Copper Gold Corp. CEO Charles Travis Naugle were present at the meeting but didn’t comment.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.