Bayer/P4 now a defendant in Caldwell Canyon lawsuit

P4 Productions LLC is now an intervenor defendant in the lawsuit seeking to halt the development of P4’s Caldwell Canyon Mine.

The original filing of the lawsuit was on April 27. The three environmental action groups who are the plaintiffs claimed that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) botched the Environmental Impact Statement process for the mine. P4 was not named in the original filing of the suit despite its status as the mining production company.

P4 submitted a motion to intervene on June 8, which was a motion to become a defendant in the case. The plaintiffs filed a reply, arguing against P4 as an additional defendant on June 29. P4 filed its counter-argument to the plaintiffs on July 12. The motion ripe deadline for the motion to intervene was July 13.

Subsequent court documents show that P4 was added as a intervenor defendant between the motion ripe deadline and July 28. With P4’s status as an intervenor defendant backed to June 8 on subsequent documents in the U.S. Courts PACER system.

The case was also reassigned to U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill on July 21. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale was the initial judge on the case. To provide faster processing in the early phases of a lawsuit, the parties involved can opt to keep a case before a magistrate judge. The parties in this case did not consent to do so by the June 21 deadline. As a result, the case was reassigned to a district judge.

Judge Winmill gave the parties in the suit an early October deadline to file their joint litigation and discovery plans, to be followed by a telephonic scheduling conference a week later.

The proposed Caldwell Canyon Mine along Schmidt Ridge in Caribou County intends to deliver phosphate ore to P4’s phosphoric acid plant north of Soda Springs, formerly owned by Monsanto. The new mine would extend the life of the plant 40 years. If allowed to go forward, the mine will eventually replace the Blackfoot Bridge Mine at the northern end of the Caribou Range.

The phosphoric acid produced in the P4 plant in Soda Springs is used to make glyphosate, the controversial active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. The plant is currently listed as an active Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Past contamination at the P4 Soda Springs plant is unrelated to the current undeveloped Caldwell Canyon mine site.

The lawsuit has an updated case number of 4:21-cv-00182-BLW.