Who we are and what we do…
Save the South Fork Salmon (SSFS) is a community-based, all-volunteer organization headquartered in West Central Idaho. Our members cherish the mountains, the clean air and water, the fish, wildlife, plants and culture that make up our ecosystem. SSFS works to expose the dangers to the South Fork of the Salmon River ecosystem by the proposed reopening of the Stibnite gold mine by Perpetua Resources (formerly Midas Gold). We provide factual information about the ecosystem and the environmental and socio-economic threats posed by new mining at the headwaters of this delicate watershed. We focus on protecting public health, the river, the fish and the watershed by actively participating in the ongoing permitting processes. In addition we facilitate public comment in the National Environmental Policy Act process( NEPA) to ensure all laws and regulations are followed. To learn more about the South Fork Salmon River and the threat that the Stibnite Gold Project (SGP) poses to these headwaters, click on the link below.
“The Stibnite Gold Project will permanently scar thousands of acres of public land. Midas Gold does not own all this land. The Payette National Forest does not own this land. This land belongs equally to every citizen. The Payette National Forest’s responsibility is wise stewardship of the public’s land — your land.”
– Charles Ray, founding member of SSFS
“As a citizen of the Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu, which means the people, I look at gold mining as a symbol of broken promises….In 1860 gold was discovered, and thousands of prospectors flooded across our borders in violation of the treaty, damaging our sacred places and natural resources and causing unspeakable injury to our people... A century and a half later, the promise of gold once again threatens our homeland and way of life. For us, the Nimiipuu, the value of the land, fish and wildlife will always be worth more than gold.”
– Marcie Carter, Nez Perce Tribal member
Stop proposed mining from threatening our rivers
Current Updates
Air Quality Permit Update
We’d like to acknowledge the colossal effort put forth by the Idaho Conservation League, Save the South Fork Salmon and the Nez Perce Tribe appealing Perpetua Resource’s air quality permit and helping to protect Idaho’s clean air. This team and these organizations have been working hard to protect public health from arsenic and particulate pollution that the Stibnite Gold Project will emit. The hearing has been made and we are awaiting the decision. Stay tuned!
We need your help!
Write to your State representatives and let them know that you demand that the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) follow the law and its own regulations in issuing an air permit to Perpetua for the proposed Stibnite Gold mine.
Since June of 2022, we, along with the Idaho Conservation League and the Nez Perce Tribe, have been fighting to overturn DEQ's decision to issue Perpetua an air permit for the Stibnite Gold Project, a permit that will deny Valley County residents and all Idahoans traveling to the backcountry clean air to breathe that we are entitled to under the Clean Air Act.
Last October, the State Office of Administrative Hearings issued a preliminary order denying our challenge to the permit. That means that anyone traveling through the proposed mine site to access some of our most beloved public lands, such as Thunder Mountain and Monumental Summit, will be exposed to air pollutants in amounts that exceed health-based thresholds established by the EPA. The DEQ and Perpetua believe that they can deny air quality protections to the public if they require travelers to sign a "waiver" agreeing to be "guests of the mine."
What is more, the DEQ and Perpetua used some creative math to dilute the apparent levels of carcinogenic pollutants, like arsenic. The result is that emissions will appear, on paper, to be below the State's toxic air pollutant thresholds, while in reality emissions will be 181% higher than reported.
We believe that DEQ and Perpetua's plan does not follow the law.
On Thursday, March 14, we will be presenting our case to the Board of Environmental Quality, asking the Board to vacate the permit. Support SSFS and our partners by attending the hearing in Boise or virtually. Information can be found at: https://www.deq.idaho.gov/events/board-of-environmental-quality-special-meeting-3/
Letters can be sent to Valley County District 8 House Representative Matt Bundy (mbundy@house.idaho.gov) and Senator Geoff Schroeder (gschroeder@senate.idaho.gov).
SSFS and IRu present: “Flowing Voices” - A Film night, Jan. 13th - Alpine Playhouse, 6pm
Please join river community advocates Ben Stookesberry and Cheyenne Rogers for a night of river advocacy as they present their film, Rio Pusuno: Meet the Community, about an Ecuadorian kayaker, Diego Robles, and the hydro power project that is drying up the river he loves and damaging the community that calls the river home.
Mallory Duncan will also present his award winning film, The Blackcountry Journal, set to jazz and the spoken word from the streets of his black culture roots. Mallory contemplates his connection to wild, snowy mountains that are the cathedrals of his backcountry practice.
In partnership with Idaho Rivers United, Salmon Source to Sea, and other local supporters, this event will showcase how critical river advocacy is for the places we love through a night of art, storytelling, and environmental stewardship.
January 13th at the Alpine Playhouse Theater. Doors open at 6 pm with a suggested donation of $5-$10 at the door. The evening will also include updates on the Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Stibnite Mine Project.
Learn more and read the film descriptions at www.idahorivers.org/events. Thank you for joining us!
Backyard Problems report uses Stibnite as one of its case studies
Read the recent report from Backyard Problems illustrating the longstanding issues with mining in the United States and the concerns with the Stibnite Gold Project in particular.
“The Stibnite Gold Project exemplifies how damage from poorly-regulated mining is still causing harm today and into the future. Because of insufficient funding to address impacts from historical activities and operators, the site is caught in a vicious cycle where there are few options other than to accept industry’s offer to help with the cleanup, but only as a side project of what will be an enormously profitable gold mining operation. The Stibnite Area demonstrates the need for careful planning, rigorous environmental safeguards, bond amounts that reflect the true cost of cleanup, and funding for mine remediation to reduce our dependence on mining industry charity to clean up the mistakes of the past.”
Click on the link below to read more.
Seattle Times accounts EPA’s dissatisfaction with Perpetua’s air quality permit
“The Environmental Protection Agency slammed an air quality permit for a proposed central Idaho gold mine issued by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, saying it is so lax that it might violate the federal Clean Air Act.”
Concerns over Perpetua’s Air Quality Permit and why SSFS has petitioned it.
Last July, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, under its Clean Air Act authority, issued the Stibnite Gold Project’s first major permit to regulate air pollution emitted during mining operations. Since 2020, Save the South Fork Salmon, Inc., along with the Idaho Conservation League, the Nez Perce Tribe, and EPA, has participated in three rounds of draft permits, where issues were repeatedly raised about the permit’s lack of adequate mechanisms to ensure compliance with Idaho's Air Quality Rules and the Clean Air Act. When DEQ failed to address these concerns in the final permit, SSFS petitioned the State to review DEQ's actions. SSFS asserts that DEQ's handling of this permit was driven by politics–and not the best available science–to value industry profits over serious threats to public health and safety. The permit allows Perpetua Resources to endanger people near or traveling through the mine site by exposing them to toxic air pollutants. And the permit allows Perpetua Resources itself to decide when it has committed an air quality violation.
Rencent Issues
Horse Heaven GOld Project
The threat of gold mining in the South Fork Salmon River watershed continues with Canada-based Stallion Discoveries Corp.'s proposed Horse Heaven Gold Project, located directly north of the Stibnite Gold Project.
The Horse Heaven Exploration Project includes drilling 60 holes each up to 1,000 feet deep, using 30,000 gallons of water per day, and operating 24 hours a day and 7 days a week during the drilling season. The project borders roadless areas, impacts critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, and lies within the aboriginal lands of the Nez Perce Tribe. Traffic associated with fuel and hazardous material hauls on the Johnson Creek Road will only exacerbate impacts if the Stibnite Gold Project is approved. See link bellow to comment with the Forest Service.
Be a voice for the South Fork Salmon River. The watershed must not become the epicenter of a 21st century gold rush.
Water Rights Protest Continues
The Water Rights Protest continues before the Idaho Department of Water Resources. In December 2021, SSFS, the Nez Perce Tribe, and Idaho Conservation League protested Perpetua Resource’s application to appropriate and divert 9.6cfs of water from the East Fork of the South Fork. The water would primarily be used for ore processing. SSFS believes that the sheer volume of this appropriation will negatively impact the local public interest, including the health and viability of aquatic ecosystems in the East Fork South Fork Salmon River. A decision on a preliminary matter -- which will help guide the protest as it moves forward -- is expected later this summer.
SSFS and PARTNERS CHALLENGE PERPETUA’S AIR QUALITY PERMIT
With help from our technical experts and partner organizations we have continued to expose the flaws in Perpetua’s proposed plan to control toxic air emissions from the Stibnite Gold Project. Find out more about our efforts and read our joint letter with ICL, IRU, and Earthworks to the US Forest Service. Click on the links below.
WHAT ABOUT ANTIMONY, “Strategic Minerals” CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE” NEW MINING BOOM”?
Perpetua's latest attempt to portray their project as contributing to the common good (rather than just the investors) centers on the production of antimony as a byproduct. Their claim that this antimony is needed to enable a transition to renewable energy is little more than “greenwashing” intended to encourage public support of a gold mine having major detrimental environmental and economic impacts. To learn more, click on the link below.
What is Greenwashing?
One of our own founding members, Judy Anderson, explains it well in her opinion piece in our local Star News publication. To learn more, click on the links below.
THE MINING BOOM AND MINING LAW REFORM
With critical minerals demand rising to power the new technologies of the clean energy economy, we must ensure that our critical mineral supply chains are sustainable, secure, and held to the highest environmental, equity, and human rights standards. Reforming the 1872 Mining Law that has governed hardrock mining for 150 years is critical to ensuring that any minerals sourced through mining are done in the most sustainable way possible.
In addition, there has been a Huge win for mining law reform in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals! On May 12, 2022, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Forest Service could not assume the validity of unpatented mining claims to justify permanent occupation of those claims with millions of tons of mine waste. Because the 1872 Mining Law allows exlcusive possession and enjoyment of the surface of a mining claim only if a valuable mineral deposit exists, the Forest Service misconstured the law when it approved the indefinite storage of mine waste on national forest land where no valuable minerals had been discovered. SSFS is watching this case closely because a similar factual scenario is present for the Stibnite Gold Project.
Other News and Information
Click text below to read full article by Public New Service!
Idaho Press Article
Continue reading this recent article featured in the Idaho Press, featuring comments from SSFS member Julie Thrower. Check it out!
Joint Comment Letters on the DEIS
See our SSFS comment letter and our joint comment letter with ICL, IRU, and many others to the Payette National Forest Service addressing the Stibnite Gold Project DEIS.
The Draft EIS is out on the Stibnite Gold Project! You can review it here.
The Appendices are listed first and the Executive Summary and Chapters are listed at the bottom. We will be providing more information as our analysis of this massive document progresses. For now, the Executive Summary (located towards the bottom of the web page) is a good place to begin for a broad overview of the nature of the decision to be made, the alternatives, and a very brief description of the environmental consequences.
Read our group letter demanding for a new DEIS for the Stibnite Gold Project
With new data and analysis out, the Stibnite Gold Project needs a new DEIS.
read an article by Marcie Carter from writers on the range.
Read Eddie Welty’s LTE in the Star news stating why the Midas Gold Mine presents more risks than rewards to our community.
Stibnite Draft EIS Released, Putting Headwaters of the South Fork Salmon at Risk
Perpetua (Midas gold) should take operations to more accommodating country
Charles Ray, SSFS member, writes a letter to the editor in this weeks Star News (April 16,2020). Click on the link below to read.
Expressed concerns for Midas Gold’s pressure on nepa
Fred Coriell responds to the recent AP article illuminating Midas Gold’s influence on their upcoming NEPA report. His essay was recently published in the Jan. 3rd addition of the Star News. Click on the link below.
Why A Fish Tunnel is an insufficient option
Fish biologist Mary Faurot explains why Midas Gold’s proposed fish tunnel will not suffice for the East Fork of the South Fork River. The essay was recently published in the Star News. Click on the link below.
Past Events
