Protect the North Fork Smith Water Quality (ARCHIVED ACTION)

Action Alert: Protect the North Fork Smith Water Quality

Please note: The comment period closed April 19, 2016

We have an opportunity to express support for protecting something special – the water that flows in the Smith River.

Over the last eighty years important protections have been secured for the Smith watershed through Redwood State and National Park, Wild and Scenic River, and Smith River National Recreation Area designations. Each of these actions provides important protections for the Smith watershed and elevates the qualifications of the Smith River as a place that deserves steadfast support.

The Threat

Despite protections – an international mining company is actively pursing plans to develop a nickel strip mine in the headwaters of the Wild and Scenic North Fork Smith River in Oregon. The Red Flat Nickel Corporation would locate their mine south of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness within the Baldface Creek drainage, which is a key tributary to the North Fork Smith. This is bad news because experts tell us that metal mining is by far the largest toxic polluter in the USA.

Support Proposal to Designate Outstanding National Resource Waters in Oregon!

In late April, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission will consider designating the North Fork Smith River and all of its tributaries within Oregon, as Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW). Only high quality waters of exceptional recreational or ecological significance may be so designated – and with it comes a high level of protection under the federal Clean Water Act. If approved, such a designation for the Smith River in Oregon will prevent strip mining in the North Fork Smith watershed.

TAKE ACTION!

Please recommend the North Fork Smith and its tributaries in Oregon be designated Outstanding Resource Waters. It’s super easy to do —- and a designation of the North Fork Smith River in Oregon will help prevent a proposed strip mine.

Click here to go to the OR Dept. of Environmental Quality site, and submit your comment. Comments are being accepted through April 19th, 2016. Do it today and help ensure that the Smith remains wild and scenic for generations to come.

To review a copy of the petition nominating the river, click the Petition.