Thank you for commenting to stop Stibnite Mine. Here’s what’s next:
Over 18,000 public comments were submitted to the Forest Service surrounding Stibnite Mine. Photo credit: Nick Kunath, IRU staff
From all of us at Idaho Rivers United, thank you for the engagement and energy you have invested alongside our staff during the past two and a half months evaluating the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the Stibnite Gold Project. Additional kudos to those who took the time to submit a personalized comment letter and helped spread the word to make sure that your voices are heard and considered in this contentious project.
Over the past 75 days of review, we’ve read thousands of pages, dug deep in technical documents, lost track of which of the many open PDFs we were reading, consumed more caffeine than is probably recommended, and we would do it all again. The South Fork Salmon River and the resources that would be lost by this project will always be worth protecting. IRU and our partners will continue to ensure that the voices of our members are heard loudly and clearly.
While we wish that the Forest Service had used its power to grant the public additional time to review this incredibly complex project, we know that through the dedication and hard work of our organization and our partners, we submitted over 300-pages of comments that point to some very serious assumptions and deficiencies included in the SDEIS that must be addressed by the Forest Service.
All said and done, the Forest Service has received 18,410 comments on this project. While we know that many of these were form letters generated by Perpetua’s PR campaign, we are proud to see how many comments came in over the last 48 hours of the comment period against the project, many of which cited resources that IRU helped provide to the public.
What’s next?
From here, we can expect there to be some downtime before we hear anything from the Forest Service. They will now begin reading and addressing all substantive comments that were submitted to them and consider how to incorporate them into the next Environmental Impact Statement. At that point, anyone who commented on the SDEIS will have the option to object if their comments and concerns were not adequately addressed.
While unlikely, the Forest Service may also issue a supplement to the SDEIS, in section or entirety, if they find that the comments submitted point out enough deficiency to warrant that process. We certainly think that there are some glaring issues to address and that this would be most prudent.
Regardless, this project will continue to be a priority for IRU moving forward, and we will continue to keep our members informed with any news or next steps. In the meantime, we have uploaded our coalition’s comments if you are curious to dive deeper into what we submitted to the Forest Service. And again, THANK YOU to everyone who has been engaged in this process! Public opinion matters and we are proud to see so many IRU members actively involved in this effort. Your voice is one of the most important tools to utilize for decisions about your public lands!
