The North Smith River watershed on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, in Oregon, is being targeted for a large nickel mine that would devastate the area for recreation and pollute public drinking water in California.
A public comment period is now open until July 8, 2014 at 5 PM, for a 5 year limited water license to extract water from a tributary stream of the North Fork Smith River for industrial mining purposes.
Send Written Comments To:
Director of Oregon Water Resources Department
Oregon Water Resources Department
725 Summer Street NE, Suite A
Salem, OR 97301
Via email, to: Director@wrd.state.or.us
Telephone 503-986-0900
Proposed test drilling for the nickel mine requires thousands of gallons of water. The Red Flat Nickel Corporation (owned by St Peter Port Capital, United Kingdom) has applied to Oregon Water Resources Department for a 5 year limited license to take public water from Taylor Creek for industrial mining purposes.
Call to Action
Write to the Director of Water Resources and tell him that limited license application (LL1533) must be denied because the water use would be detrimental to the public interest.
All available public waters in the Smith River system have been formally declared fully allocated by the State of California for existing municipalities and users in California, as well as fully appropriated for recreational use, or are needed to support important recreational fisheries and provide critical habitat for the federally threatened coho salmon.
Proposed industrial test drilling with viper drills, helicopters, giant water bladders, thousands of feet of hoses, and noisy pumps is not an allowable use and is not in the public’s interest for ongoing economically important recreation.
The application is also premature and inappropriate because the impact analysis of water use has not been completed by the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest.
Related Resources
Article about the mining proposal in the Del Norte Triplicate
