Feds, tribe sue Homestake for polluting South Dakota waterways
Story-Date: 09:52 p.m. PST Tuesday  , November 25, 1997

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Feds, tribe sue Homestake for polluting South Dakota waterways



SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Homestake Mining Co., already facing a lawsuit
from the state of South Dakota for pollution, is now being sued by the
federal government and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

The tribe and the U.S. Justice Department said the San Francisco-based
company polluted a watershed with more than 100 million tons of toxic
mine tailings.

The lawsuit is similar to one the state filed in September, also in U.S.
District Court in Rapid City, S.D.

The state's suit accused Homestake of polluting Whitewood Creek in the
Black Hills with cyanide, arsenic and a variety of other mining waste for a
century, stopping in 1977. The creek flows through Lead, where Homestake
operates a gold mine.

The latest suit said Homestake discharged mining wastes into the creek, the
Belle Fourche River, the Cheyenne River and the Missouri River. The
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's reservation borders the Cheyenne River and
Lake Oahe, a huge Missouri River reservoir.

"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," Gregg Bourland, tribal chairman, said in a
release.

Homestake officials in Lead were unavailable for comment late Tuesday
afternoon.

The lawsuit was filed under the federal Superfund law and the Clean
Water Act, the Justice Department said. The lawsuit says the wastes
continue to seep into the soil and water, harming vegetation and wildlife.

A Justice Department release said the federal government, the state and the
tribe will tally up the damage to figure out what has to be done to
restore the natural resources.

Homestake spent over $100 million several years ago to clean up Whitewood
Creek and prevent additional pollution. But state officials have argued
that the job isn't finished.

Neither the state's lawsuit nor the new one ask for any specific dollar
damage amount.

An 18-mile stretch of Whitewood Creek was on the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's Superfund cleanup list for 10 years until
being removed last year.

Larry Mann, Homestake director of government and public affairs, said in
September that EPA has told Homestake to make another assessment of the
cleanup effort. He said Homestake violated no pollution law in dumping mine
wastes into Whitewood Creek prior to 1977, when the practice was outlawed.



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