Sioux Tribe and U.S. Justice Department Sue Homestake Mining Company Story-Date: 10:30 a.m. PST Sunday , December 14, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Sioux Tribe and U.S. Justice Department Sue Homestake Mining Company By K. Marie Porterfield, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News RAPID CITY, S.D.--Dec. 15--The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the U.S. Justice Department have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the Homestake Mining Company for polluting central South Dakota's watershed with over 100 million tons of toxic mine tailings. The civil suit, filed Nov. 25, alleged that Homestake, a gold mining operation near Lead in the Black Hills, discharged waste into Whitewood Creek since 1877, contaminating it. Whitewood Creek flows into the Belle Fourche River, one of the main tributaries of the Cheyenne River which flows into Lake Oahe. Both Lake Oahe and the Cheyenne River border the Cheyenne River Reservation. Ironically, four days before the papers asking for damages were filed at the federal building in Rapid City, the mining company accidentally discharged 100 gallons of mine water containing 15 to 20 parts per million of cyanide into Whitewood Creek. Homestake officials, who voluntarily reported the discharge to the state Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, found 65 dead fish along the creek below the discharge point. In 1983 the Environmental Protection Agency placed an 18 mile stretch of the creek downstream from the mine on the National Priorities List. The mining company was required to cover or remove the contaminated soils and monitor the creek for hazardous substances. The EPA signed a certificate of completion for the remedial action three years ago, and last year the site was taken off the NPL. The recent suit alleges that Homestake left about 30 million tons of tailings in the creek that are located downstream from the NPL site Although he said he could not go into detail because of the litigation, CRST Attorney General Steve Emery said that issues of human health are involved in the tribe's suit. "This case is critical to protect the health and safety of reservation residents as well as our treaty rights, waters and natural resources for the coming generations," said Gregg Bourland, CRST's tribal chairman. The suit alleges that in addition to tailings, a daily average of 240 pounds of zinc, 72 pounds of copper and 10 tons of arsenopyrite were discharged into Whitewood Creek until 1977 and, until 1970, discharged mercury into the creek. Other hazardous substances discharged by Homestake include cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, selenium and silver. According to the suit these substances, as well as mercury and arsenic which were part of Homestake's mining wastes, still seep into the soil and leach into the soil, surface water and groundwater. Fish, birds, wildlife and vegetation have been damaged on tribal and federally managed lands. CRST Attorney Tom VanNorman, said that the tribe filed as co-plaintiffs with the federal government under the Superfund Act, which considers federal, state and tribal governments co-trustees of natural resources. The suit follows a similar one filed against Homestake by the state of South Dakota. "This nation's natural resources are one of our most precious assets and we must protect them," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "When the environment is damaged, the polluter, not the American taxpayer, must pay to clean it up." Homestake's position after being asked by the EPA last Sept. to assess the cleanup, was that before the law enacted in 1977 banning discharging toxic waste into streams, the company's practices were not illegal. The tribe and the federal government, along with the state of South Dakota, are seeking to put a dollar amount on mitigating the damages the San Francisco-based mining company caused to the environment over the last 100 years it has operated in the Black Hills. ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. HM, ------------------------------------------------------------