L&W Quarry Plan Ok’d; Land Sale Scotched

BOISE, Idaho – L&W Stone Corp. will continue to quarry its Three Rivers rock until 2009, according to a federal judge’s ruling.
The Orland, Calif.-based company will continue operating under a three-year interim mining plan approved by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and affirmed by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill last fall, according to the Challis, Idaho, Messenger.
A plan to take the quarry out of federal oversight and sell it to L&W, however, ground to halt in some Congressional byplay.
The quarry, near Clayton, Idaho, will operate two pits while the BLM prepares an environmental impact statement.
Previous approval of the mining led to legal action in federal court by the Western Watershed Project (WWP). The environmental group sued to stop expansion of the Three Rivers quarry and cut back current production because of possible ecological harm.
Winmill will allow L&W to mine downward but not extend outward within a four-acre part of a 78-acre area of environmental concern, according to the Messenger. The judge ruled mining will not harm a pristine plant area on the East Fork Salmon River bench.
The mining will only disturb about two additional acres of land at the quarry, Winmill ruled, allow full employment at the operation and not limit other options that may be proposed by the BLM in its study.
The judge expressed confidence that the mining plan will protect the environment, but he also wrote that “there is substantial evidence that L&W Stone has expanded this site over the years without approval from the BLM.”
The Messenger also reported that the judge noted arguments from L&W Stone and Challis Mayor Janette Burstedt Piva that not allowing the mining in both quarry pits would cause economic harm and the loss of jobs. Company officials noted that curtailing the mining in half, as proposed by the WWP, would cut the local $2.8 million payroll by up to $1.8 million.
The legal challenge almost became moot in October, however, when Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) introduced legislation to sell the quarry area to L&W for $519,000. The Associated Press reported that the land sale would be part of a budget reconciliation bill aimed mainly at costs from Gulf Coast hurricanes and the federal deficit.
Idaho’s state parks department and Custer County, where the quarry is located, would’ve split most of the $400,000 sales proceeds. The federal government would receive $104,000.
Representatives of the WWP labeled the proposed sale as pork-barrel politics, although the only political donations cited by the Associated Press were a total of $2,800 since 2002 given by the Laine family – L&W’s owners – to the Republican National Committee and the campaigns for President George W. Bush and Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
The sale collapsed, however, when questions arose about changing federal mining-land laws, and the proposal came out of the budget bill. Ironically, one of the legislators hesitant of approving the sale turned out to be Sen. Craig.