A federal judge has yanked approval for a phosphate mining project in southeastern Idaho, saying federal land managers in the Trump administration didn鈥檛 in part properly consider the mine鈥檚 impact on sage grouse, a bird species that has seen an 80% decline in population since 1965.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill鈥檚 Friday decision came five months after he found fault with the way the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the Caldwell Canyon Mine in 2019.
The mine has been proposed by P4 Production LLC, a subsidiary of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG. Three environmental groups 鈥� the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians 鈥� sued.
In January, Winmill agreed with the conservation groups that the federal agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws on several counts when it approved the mine, including failing to consider the indirect effects of processing ore at a nearby plant and the cumulative impacts on , whose population has dramatically declined over its habitat in 11 Western states, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
His Friday decision issued remedies for those violations: Vacating both the mine鈥檚 approval and the environmental analysis of the project , as well as any other decision that relied on those documents.
鈥淲e believe the court鈥檚 decision to vacate the BLM鈥檚 approvals is excessive,鈥� Bayer AG said in a statement. The company is assessing its next steps, which could include an appeal.
鈥淲e believe the few specific deficiencies the court identified in the BLM鈥檚 assessment can and should be fully addressed expeditiously,鈥� the statement said. Bayer said it plans to have the mine operational in the next few years.
An email sent to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The proposed venture would have included two new open mine pits to extract phosphate ore, according to court documents. It would have resulted in the disturbance of about 1,550 acres (627 hectares) of previously undeveloped land nearly 300 miles (483 kilometers) southeast of Boise.
The mine was projected to last for 40 years, with ore taken by truck or rail to a nearby processing plant.
There, the ore would be processed to produce glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world. Bayer, which acquired the herbicide鈥檚 original producer Monsanto in 2018, is from people who say Roundup exposure caused their cancer.
鈥淭his strip mine would鈥檝e cut through the heart of crucial habitat for greater sage grouse and other species鈥� just to produce an herbicide, Hannah Connor, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
鈥淣ow sage grouse have a fighting chance at continuing to dance their age-old dances in this place. And the government can鈥檛 go on arbitrarily ignoring the environmental harms of phosphate mining,鈥� Connor said.
Bayer this year began transitioning glyphosate out of its U.S. residential lawn and garden products and using other ingredients as a way to reduce future litigation risks. Agriculture and professional products will not be changed, and the company said it stands behind the safety of its glyphosate products.
___
Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.
Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press
