Forest Service approves latest Kilgore exploration plan

The tiny community of Kilgore in the heart of Clark County is the last populated spot in Idaho before the Montana border. Kilgore is a handful of ranches on the thinly covered basalt flows of the East Snake River Plain. The cattle and hay fields outnumber the two-footed residents.

Kilgore is in the news right now because the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced on Nov. 16 that Excellon Resources can continue with its exploration of the western Centennial Mountains along the Idaho-Montana border. Excellon owns 614 federal lode mining claims covering an area of 12,150 acres in Clark County, the least populated county in the state.

Forest Service announcement

The Dubois Ranger District (DRD) of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest posted a decision notice and finding of no significant impact (DN-FNSI) on Nov. 16, which had been signed on Nov. 12 by District Ranger Bill Davis. The DN-FNSI allows Excellon’s exploration program of drilling and collecting rock cores from its claims.

“We appreciate the dedication of the USFS to ensure that our plan for the Kilgore Project includes the appropriate safeguards to protect the lands, waters and wildlife on the project and surrounding region,” said Brendan Cahill, Excellon president and CEO, in a statement. “Our team in Idaho, led by senior project manager Phil Bandy, has also demonstrated patience and flexibility in enhancing our plan based on the recommendations of the USFS. We expect to provide updates on the next stages of our exploration plans for Kilgore in the coming days.”

The subject of this latest DN-FNSI is the third Plan of Operations (PoO) for exploration submitted by the American arm of Canadian mining firm Otis Gold, which was acquired by another Canadian mining firm (Excellon) in April 2020. Otis Gold successfully received approval for two previous PoOs for exploration, one submitted in 2008 and one in 2013.

The application for the third Kilgore PoO was submitted in October 2017. The new PoO described a drilling program limited to constructing 140 drill rig sites supported by building access roads to reach those sites. The application was accompanied by a 510-page environmental monitoring report prepared by Otis Gold, tracking its environmental monitoring program it established in 2014 for the previous 2013 PoO application.

The USFS published drafts of a new environmental assessment (EA) and DN-FNSI for the PoO in May 2018.

Objections to the environmental assessment

The Idaho Conservation League and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition sent a letter through their law firm, Advocates for the West (AfW) of Boise on July 2, 2018. The letter objecting to the drafts had multiple lines of complaint, including allegations that the USFS did not adequately follow the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), using various grounds to argue its case.

The grounds included issue with an EA instead of using an environmental impact statement (EIS). An EIS is a longer and more expensive in-depth evaluation format not usually used for exploration activities in a USFS area with campgrounds, already-developed roads and immediate proximity to active private agricultural land.

Other grounds in the letter included claims that the USFS did not sufficiently consider alternatives to the proposed PoO, did not adequately evaluate impacts to threatened and endangered species, did not adequately allow for public commentary on the project, failed to address direct, indirect and cumulative impacts and many others.

The USFS issued a final DN-FNSI on Aug. 20, 2018, giving Otis Gold the go-ahead to start its drilling program. It also posted to the DRD website a 17-page grid detailing 77 pieces of correspondence from the public with comments, most adverse, about the project. That document recorded changes to the mitigation measures and scope in response to public input, though the majority of the commentary were not germane to the purpose of the DN-FNSI.

The lawsuit

AfW filed a complaint on behalf of the Idaho Conservation League and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition on Nov. 13, 2018, repeating the issues raised in the July 2 letter of objections to the DN-FNSI. AfW has a repository of many of its filing in this suit posted to its website, along with its description of how it viewed the exploration program. A complete record of the case is a docket of 59 items available through the U.S. Courts fee-based PACER information system (case 1:18-cv-00504-BLW).

AfW won the suit for its clients. Judge B. Lynn Winmill vacated the August 2018 DN-FNSI on May 4, 2020. The vacatur was based on one limited criteria for one of the four ridges where Excellon wants to drill: Dog Bone Ridge, where there was no baseline surface or ground water study, no ground water monitoring in place and no means to ascertain if drilling would affect the endangered Yellowstone cutthroat trout (YCT).

Regarding the other claims in the complaint, the U.S. District Court for Idaho did not view them favorably: “The Court rejected the plaintiffs’ claims that the Forest Service failed to adequately consider impacts to grizzly bears, the Columbia Spotted Frog and the Whitebark Pine, and the Court similarly rejected claims that the agency failed to consider the risks of fuel spills, soil degradation and sedimentation.”

The new Forest Service DN-FNSI

The Nov. 12 DN-FNSI specifically addresses the remarks by Judge Winmill on where the original plan was found to be deficient.

The approved drilling plan is similar to the one submitted in 2019. That plan allowed for 140 drilling stations. Excellon drilled 10 holes before legal actions stopped activities. The new project plan therefore only has 130 drilling locations listed.

The other significant differences include the source for drilling water. The original water drafting site for drilling on Dog Bone Ridge was Corral Creek. Because of the known presence of YCT in Corral Creek, Excellon has moved its water source to an off-forest site on Beaver Creek, which has no known population of YCT.

Excellon also established a water-monitoring program on Dog Bone Ridge and started collecting data there beginning in 2020.

“We spent substantial time reviewing and addressing water quality concerns,” said Davis on the DRD Facebook page. “At the end of the day, we feel this decision allows Excellon to exercise their mineral rights, while providing additional environmental protection.”