Indigenous, environmental-justice and conservation groups are warning that the Trump administration’s streamlined environmental-review process for a mine near Elko violates federal laws—and will likely backfire when inevitable lawsuits result in delaying the mine project.
The 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) mandates federal agencies solicit public comments throughout the permitting stages. The new policy allows agencies to sidestep NEPA by issuing their own requirements. The South Railroad gold and silver mine, on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, is the first project in Nevada to be affected.
“The truncated public process is a slap in the face to directly affected communities,” said John Hadder, executive director of Great Basin Resource Watch. “The proposal that the BLM presented at the two public meetings and online does not provide a complete picture of the agency action that is required for public comment. The public, and especially those who will feel the effects of the mine, deserve the right to full disclosure.”
Tribes and environmental groups submitted comments on the project in September—before the BLM has conducted its environmental analysis, and changes to the project have been made. Normally, the initial comment period is followed by a draft environmental impact statement with a public comment period, then a final EIS, and the agency’s decision. But the groups were notified that the agency plans to jump from the preliminary “scoping” period to a final environmental statement and a decision on the permit by 2026.
“The public is going to be shut out, with no chance to comment on the final form of the project or the BLM’s environmental analysis,” Hadder said.
Ferminia Stevens, executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, said the new process “ignores critical impacts on water, animal life, cultural sites and traditional gathering areas, including medicinal plants essential to community health.”
The 8,548 acre project site is about 25 miles southwest of Elko.
This is outrageous! This mining project mustn’t be exempted from due NEPA requirements regarding its effects upon the natural ecosystem, plant and animal species, and our own human lives!