The Boise River Is More Precious Than Gold

A Canadian mining company, Atlanta Gold, is pushing ahead with plans to build an open pit cyanide heap leach gold mine sixty miles northeast of Boise. The mine would be in the headwaters of the Boise River.

The proposed mine threatens water, fish, wildlife, and health and safety for our communities.

• A spill at the mine or on the transportation route to the mine could contaminate the Boise River watershed. The Boise River provides 22% of Boise's municipal water supply.
• Mine operations will involve trucking millions of pounds of cyanide, diesel fuel and other hazardous chemicals every year on riverside and mountainside roads notorious for landslides, washouts, and avalanches.
• Atlanta Gold plans to store 850,000 gallons of diesel fuel in bladders next to the river and on top of a mountain outside of Atlanta.
• The mine would contaminate ground water with arsenic and require long term water treatment to remove this toxin.
• Open pit cyanide heap leach mines were banned in Montana after unanticipated toxic leaks contaminated water supplies

The Boise Mayor and City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the mine, declaring the project, "an intolerable threat to the river, the environment, and the citizens of Boise. Click here to see the Mayor's press release and the City Council's resolution. Read the Boise Mayor's letter in support of reforming the 1872 Mining Law to help protect the Boise River.

Mayor Bieter, Eddie Trout and students from RiverStone School announcing the resolution protecting the Boise River. Photo by Kris Hudson, Boise City Public Works.

We are urging other city and county representatives to help protect the Boise River from the use of cyanide and other hazardous chemicals by passing a similar resolution.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Write a short, personalized note asking the Ada County Commissioners to say "NO" to the use of cyanide and other hazardous chemicals in the headwaters of the Boise River and send it to: 200 West Front Street, Boise, ID 83702.
• Send an email to the Ada County Commissioner's Office: bocc1@adaweb.net or or call 208.287.7000.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Idaho Conservation League: jrobison@wildidaho.org, 208.345.6933
Idaho Rivers United: liz@idahorivers.org, 208.343.7481
Sierra Club: jessica.ruehrwein@sierraclub.org, 208.384.1023
For more information on the mine, go to www.atlantagoldeis.com

MORE IMAGES:

Quartz Gulch, the proposed site of one of Atlanta Gold's mining waste dumps

Warning sign posted at James Creek road, the latest transportation route for truckloads of hazardous chemicals

Open pit mine for phosphate in Southeastern Idaho

Kokanee spawning in Middle Fork Boise River

Middle Fork Boise River

Arsenic flow from existing mine shaft near proposed mine

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