A Reckoning

It’s time that I admit that the Downstream Effects series has been misguided. 

Almost all 7,250 words of parts 1 through 4 of this series of posts have attempted to paint a picture of the downstream waters and ecosystems that would be destroyed or damaged nearly beyond repair by a likely mishap in a cyanide-laced leach pond – which, luckily for the joke I have prepared in a few paragraphs, is referred to as the pregnant pond – or a failure of the heavy metals-laced tailings dam that would one day sit upstream. For these cyanide- and heavy-metals-laced reservoirs would certainly exist if the next phases of the Kilgore Project go ahead as planned by Excellon Resources (for so says their February 2021 Corporate Presentation).

One Big But

The problem with the way I went about Downstream Effects is that the current Environmental Assessment by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest that lays out the proposed exploratory drilling over the next 3-5 years in the Kilgore Project area in the Western Centennials makes absolutely no mention of the words cyanide, open-pit, or heap leach. I control-F-ed it.

In other words, Caribou-Targhee National Forest is attempting to approve a plan of invasive exploratory drilling without so much as disclosing – in a way that the public can effectively comment on – that the outcome of this drilling will be a perpetually dangerous open pit cyanide heap leach mine upstream from our protected wetlands and life-sustaining aquifer. This mine is the only Wealth Creating Opportunity Excellon envisions trading the Western Centennials for.

An open pit cyanide heap leach mine is quite a thing to leave unsaid. And therefore quite a thing to not give the public a chance to meaningfully comment on.

The Punchline

But luckily, I grew up participating in the Lake-Erie-sized Idaho Falls religious community. I can see the bigger picture. I will not be deceived. 

I know that the only way – as I’ve heard from so many trusted Sunday School teachers – to avoid catastrophic consequences down the line is to look beyond the exciting or tempting or wealth-creating actions and see their consequences.

To avoid even the appearance of Exploratory Drilling in the first place. 

I wish the Forest Service’s Environmental Assessment saw it the same way.

Be Heard

Until February 11, 2021, you can make your voice heard against the Kilgore Project moving forward. Importantly, please be on the look-out for Alex’s forthcoming Comment Writing Guide for excellent tips on how to effectively comment in ways that DO interact effectively and meaningfully with the Forest Service’s 2021 Environmental Assessment.