Appendix B: Cumulative Effects: Past, Present and Reasonably Foreseeable Projects This page intentionally left blank Appendix B: Past, Present and Future Related Action

This list details past, present, and ongoing and foreseeable future activities in the Headwaters East Fork South Fork Salmon and Sugar Creek 6th order hydrologic units.

Golden Meadows Exploration Project 1 Past, Present and Future Related Action Appendix B:

Table B-1. Cumulative Effects: Past, Present and Reasonably Foreseeable Projects Temporal Action* Description Year Ownership Scale

Surface and underground mining and milling. Construction of a town 1920’s to late Mining FS and Private Past with a population in excess of 1000. Diversion of EFSF Salmon River 1950’s through a 4000 ft. (+) tunnel. Exploration Drilling Several exploration drilling projects. 1970-1979 FS and Private Past Mine Closure and 1993-2000 FS and Private Past Reclamation Reclamation and Closure of Hecla mining and processing facilities. Mine Closure and Reclamation and Closure of SMI mining and processing facilities by 1998-2002 FS and Private Past Reclamation FS and ID Department of Lands. Several CERCLA Removal Actions were conducted by The Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and Exxon-Mobil CERCLA Actions Corporation. The purpose was to minimize risks to human health and 1995-2006 FS and Private Past the environment from legacy mining and processing activities during the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Indian Creek Point – 12,204 reported acres 2000 Past Tamarack – 2,348 reported acres 2006 Past Wildland Fire Bishop Creek – 2,610 reported acres 2006 Past Cascade Complex – 299,930 reported acres 2007 Past Thunder City – 13,263 reported acres 2013 Past 2009 Exploratory Drilling consisted of roughly 6 drill pads in the DMEA 2009 Private Past and Hanger Flats areas. The drill pads were located on private ground. Crews were housed on private property in the community of Yellow Pine. All equipment was staged on private property. Generally, drilling 2009 Private Past 2009 Exploratory occurred 24 hours per day. Drilling Water withdrawal sites included existing sediment retention ponds and 2009 Private Past streams. Roughly 2.8 miles of private and Forest Service temporary roads were Private/ 2009 Past used and/or authorized to access drill pads. Road maintenance was Forest Service needed to open the existing roads. Private/ 2010 Past 2010 Exploratory 2010 Exploratory Drilling consisted of roughly 10 drill pads. Forest Service

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Temporal Action* Description Year Ownership Scale Drilling Crews were housed on private property in the community of Yellow Pine. All equipment was staged on private property. Generally, drilling 2010 Private Past occurred 24 hours per day. Water withdrawal sites included existing sediment retention ponds, 2010 Private Past streams, or wells, located on private ownership. Roughly 6.2 miles of private and Forest Service temporary roads were used and/or authorized to access drill Private/ 2010 Past pads. Road construction occurred on approximately 0.8 miles of road. Forest Service Road maintenance was needed to open or maintain the approximately 5.4 miles existing roads. 2011 Exploratory Drilling consisted of roughly 29 drill pads. Operations were supported by road and/or helicopter. Additional pads to collect information on private holdings have continued. These operations 2011-2012 Private Ongoing continue to be ongoing and are likely to continue into the summer of 2013. Vegetation restoration efforts occurred on the west end dump. This consisted of seeding and hydromulching of the site to attempt to 2011-2012 Private Ongoing 2011 Exploratory establish vegetation on the harsh site. Drilling (Private) Crews were housed on private property adjacent to the drilling operations or in the community of Yellow Pine. All equipment was 2011-2012 Private Ongoing staged on private property. Generally, drilling will occurred 24 hours per day. Water withdrawal sites included existing sediment retention ponds, 2011-2012 Private Ongoing streams, or wells, located on private ownership. Private/ Roughly 6.1 miles of private and Forest Service temporary roads were 2011-2012 Ongoing used and/or authorized to access drill pads and conduct monitoring. Forest Service Roughly 122 drill pads have been approved. Drilling took place during the winter of 2011/2012 on frozen ground or snow, and will extend 2011/ Past on FS through 2012. Activities have occurred in the DMEA, Hangar Flats, Private/ Winter 2012 Exploratory 2011-2012 Ongoing on Monday, Sparky’s Revenge, West End, Fiddle, Sizzle, East Fiddle, Forest Service Drilling Exit, IPG, Scout, and Yellowpine-Clark-Homestake. Private Additionally, exploration occurred on 26 geotechnical drill locations during winter 2011/2012.

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Temporal Action* Description Year Ownership Scale Crews were or are currently being housed on private property adjacent to the drilling operations or in the community of Yellow Pine. All equipment has been/will be staged on private property. Generally, drilling occurs 24 hours per day. For the winter activities, access occurred by chained rubber tired vehicle, helicopter, snowcat, or 2011-2012 Private Past snowmobile. Where drill pads were located next to roads some snow plowing occurred at select locations. During snow-free period, access will occur by helicopter, and where this is authorized access on NFS land or on private land, rubber tired vehicles will also be used for access. .

Groundwater Monitoring MGI drilled 16 new ground water monitoring wells on 8 pads in 2012. 2012 Forest Service Ongoing Pads NOI 2012 Wells were alluvial and bedrock wells Forest Road Use NOI 2013 Ongoing MGI submitted an NOI for the use of the roads described in this EA Service/Private Forest Service/ Baseline Studies Baseline data collection studies such as, but not limited to, water 2013-2014 Ongoing quality, fishery surveys, wildlife surveys, vegetation mapping, etc. Private Groundwater Monitoring MGI drilled 4 new ground water monitoring wells on 2 pads in 2013. 2013 Forest Service Ongoing Pads NOI 2013 Wells are alluvial and bedrock. Three open roads transect the cumulative effects area: McCall-Stibnite Road (50412) currently maintained by the county under a cooperative agreement, on a regular maintenance schedule. Road Maintenance – All Thunder Mountain Road (50375) and Meadow Creek Lookout Road Performed by Forest (51290) both Forest Service system level 2 roads received County/Forest Service, County, Private maintenance in 2014 and are on a regular maintenance schedule. Ongoing Service Landowners, other Road maintenance activities include blading, slough removal, and members of the public. culvert cleaning. Assumed private landowners on private lands keep roads open and maintained to meet their needs. Sugar Creek Road (51883) is a Forest Service system level 2 Closed road that lies within the area.

Trail Maintenance There are no Forest Service System trails within or transecting the NA cumulative effects area.

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Temporal Action* Description Year Ownership Scale

Almost the entire cumulative effects area is within the operating area of Elk Springs Outfitters whose permitted activities include: Outfitter and Guide conducting trail rides, pack trips, backpacking, mountain bike touring Ongoing Operations and photo trips. And licensed for elk, deer, goat, sheep, bear, cougar, predators, wolf, and forest grouse hunting. Juniper Mountain Outfitters and Pistol Creek Outfitters operate in adjacent areas and on the fringe of the cumulative effects area and are similarly licensed.

Several easements granted and maintained by the Forest Service Easements occur in the cumulative effects area that include: Road Right-of-Way, Ongoing FR&TA on McCall – Stibnite Road (50412), Road Right-of-Way and Linear Utility easement to Idaho Power.

Firewood Harvest Removal of firewood for non-commercial use. Adhere to general Ongoing permit requirements for the Payette National Forest.

Several noxious weed species are located have been inventoried within the cumulative effects area. These species include: spotted Noxious Weed Control knapweed, Canada thistle, butter and eggs, and rush skeletonweed. Ongoing Treatment of noxious weeds occurs regularly throughout the area and occurred in 2014. Treatments include chemical spraying and pulling.

Legal Hunting Hunting of legal game animals regulated by the state of Idaho. Ongoing

Legal Fishing Angling of legal fish species regulated by the state of Idaho. Ongoing

Legal Trapping Trapping as regulated by the state of Idaho. Ongoing

Tribal Subsistence and Ongoing Ceremonial Activities Subsistence and ceremonial activities.

Golden Meadows Exploration Project 5 Past, Present and Future Related Action Appendix B:

Temporal Action* Description Year Ownership Scale Proposed 3-years of operations Exploratory This proposed future exploration activity is addressed in this EA. Future Drilling

Golden Hand 1 and 2 Plan of Operations (POO) proposal to allow for collection of Lode Mining Claims subsurface geological information on the Golden Hand #1 and #2 2015 Planning/Future POO mining claims. The mining claims are located in the Frank Church- River of No Return Wilderness

Big Creek Road Plan of This project would authorize the use of roads to conduct exploration 2016 Planning/Future Operation Project and development.

Big Creek Restoration The proposed action would implement a range of restoration activities, and Access including route decommissioning/ rehabilitation, route designation and 2016 Planning/Future Management Project improvements, stream crossing improvement, and education/interpretive improvements Projects considered include applicable projects listed in the Payette National Forest Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA).

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Historical Context of Past Actions According to Mitchell, various parts of the area have been worked during different times under a variety of names, including Meadow Creek Mine, Yellow Pine Mine, Stibnite Mine, West End Mine, Homestake Pit, Splay Pit, Midnight Pit, and Northeast Pit (Mitchell 2000). However, mining began in earnest in the area after the 1890s Thunder Mountain District gold rush. At least one early miner, J.J. Oberbillig, thought that some of the trails and prospects dated to the 1860s when most of central Idaho was prospected (Hart 1981). Early mining in the area is poorly understood and taken from the account written by J.J. Oberbillig in the 1940s. According to Oberbillig, the first prospector in the area was a man named Baker in the 1890s. He was followed by Bartholomy and J. Pringle, who worked in the area of Cinnabar Creek between 1896 and 1904 (Hart 1981). By 1897, the Thunder Mountain Gold Rush was well underway. The activity during this rush eventually led to the establishment of the town of Yellow Pine, about 14 miles west of the later-established town of Stibnite. Yellow Pine was a small supply and social center for miners in the area that consisted mainly of small log cabin structures before World War I (WWI) (Hart 1981). Because of the remoteness of the Stibnite Mine, the area was not developed until after 1902, when J.C. McFarnahan applied for water rights on Meadow Creek to use in milling at the Meadow Creek Mine (Mitchell 2000). The ores at Stibnite included mixed antimony, gold, and silver, yet processing the ores were complex and expensive at the time. Therefore, not much development occurred at Stibnite until WWI, when interest became stronger in antimony and other minerals needed in the war effort (Mitchell 2000). During WWI antimony became a vital commodity important in the production of a new kind of ammunition (Butterman and Carlin 2004). In 1919, Al Hennesy, J.J. Oberbillig, and J.L. Niday (an attorney from Boise) founded the Meadow Creek Silver Mines Co. Two years later, Oberbillig organized the United Mercury Mines Co., also in the Stibnite district (Mitchell 2000). While constructing trails between these two mines, Oberbillig’s workmen discovered tungsten deposits. While considered interesting, the significance of the find was not deemed important at the time (Hart 1981). Between 1921 and 1925, the Meadow Creek Mines hauled out approximately 500,000 tons of antimony, silver, and gold ores. It was a fairly profitable operation, although separating the complex ores was still costly (Hart 1981). F.W. Bradley became involved in mining in the Stibnite area in 1927, when United Mercury Mines optioned the Cinnabar and Meadow Creek Mines to him for $1.5 million (Hart 1981; Mitchell 2000). Bradley owned several other mining operations, and had the capital to carry out mine improvements in the Stibnite District. In 1928, two large boilers, a sawmill, steam engines, a compressor, and other mining equipment were hauled into Meadow Creek (Hart 1981). This equipment was brought in using horses, since there were no motor vehicle roads into the area at that time. Monday Camp was established about 2 miles north of Meadow Creek and excavation began on two long tunnels between Monday Camp, Meadow Creek and Cinnabar. Shortly after this, in 1929, the mining company, in cooperation with the Forest Service, built a 10-mile road along the EFSFSR from Profile Creek, allowing automobiles and trucks into the area for the first time (Hart 1981).

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In the early 1930s, Bradley continued to pour capital into the mines, investing in a 150-ton- per-day crushing, concentrating, and treatment pilot plant (Hart 1981). This pilot plant was constructed to test a new method of ore processing developed by the Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California (Mitchell 2000). Unfortunately, the new method did not work very well and the mine made little profit and barely broke even (Hart 1981). A new era for the mines began a few years later with the advent of WWII. In 1939, with the war taking place in Europe, “…the US Bureau of Mines decided at once to develop the nation’s strategic reserves of antimony” (Hart 1981). Stibnite became a boomtown, growing from a small gold mining community to the leading tungsten producer in the United States (Bailey 1978). It was originally decided that the antimony and tungsten would be mined in an open pit, but an underground mine was started to increase production (Hart 1981). Mining crews diverted the EFSFSR through a 4,000 foot tunnel to allow for open pit mining. The mine saw a $4 million profit during the war, with an even more important contribution made to the war effort (Hart 1981). Tungsten and antimony were strategic minerals needed for the war effort (NRHP Nomination form). Between 1941 and 1945, the Stibnite Mining District produced more tungsten and antimony than any other U.S. mine, with nearly half of the U.S. supply of tungsten and 90 percent of the U.S. supply of antimony (Hart 1981). Hart describes the uses of these materials as follows: Tungsten is used as a hardener with other metals to make them able to withstand extremely high temperatures. It was used during the war in armor- piercing shells, and in the filaments of lamps, radio, radar and x-ray tubes. Antimony was also used as an alloy to strengthen other metals. Mixed with lead it was used in storage batteries. It has strong flame-resistant qualities which were used during the war to treat wooden flight decks on aircraft carriers. Antimony oxide is used to make textiles, paints and plastics flame resistant (1981). By the end of the war, the known tungsten deposits at Stibnite were largely depleted (Mitchell 2000). Although the mine continued to produce low-grade gold and antimony, it was not considered profitable. In an attempt to increase profits, a smelter was constructed in May of 1948, to avoid the expensive costs of shipping and smelting the ores in Salt Lake City (Hart 1981). The smelter never seemed to function correctly, and in 1949, the mine was plagued with even more problems when the primary crusher burned down, the electric furnace needed to be rebuilt, and the area was covered in the heaviest snow pack in years (Hart 1981). In June 1952, the mine ended production. By 1957, the plant was dismantled and houses and other buildings were torn down for materials or moved to Yellow Pine, McCall or other surrounding towns (Hart 1981; Mitchell 2000). In the 1960s, the area was reviewed for potential antimony, gold, or silver ores and the U.S. Bureau of Mines determined that there were still several areas with good ore potential (Mitchell 2000). Ranchers Exploration and Development Company (Ranchers) leased part of the mine in the 1970s and plans were made to start operating the mine, although this did not actually happen for many years (Mitchell 2000). In 1984, Ranchers merged with Hecla Mining Company, and

8 Golden Meadows Exploration Project Appendix B: Past, Present and Future Related Action continued development work until 1987. Hecla negotiated a contract with Pioneer Metals to use their leach plant at Stibnite (Mitchell 2000). By 1988, the Yellow Pine Mine was producing the third largest amount of gold in Idaho (Mitchell 2000). In 1992, Hecla joined with American Barrick Resources Corporation (Barrick) to mine the sulfide gold resource in the area. This type of ore had not yet been mined because it required a different processing system; one that Barrick was familiar with (Mitchell 2000). Also in the 1970s, Canadian Superior Mining (U.S.), Ltd. started exploring the Stibnite area, and by the late 1970s they installed a pilot plant at Stibnite and invested about $10 million to start operations (Wells 1983). An EIS was prepared for the proposed gold and silver mining and milling operation and was completed in 1982 (James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, Inc. 1981). Canadian Superior completed five cyanide leach pads in 1982. In 1983 Superior’s West End Mine completed its first full year of production and produced more gold than any other mine in Idaho. It was also the largest producer in 1984 (Mitchell 2000:148-149). The following transfers in ownership and mining activity occurred over the next 6 years: • In 1984, Mobil Oil bought Superior Oil and the mine was closed for the 1985 season (Mitchell 2000:153). • By the spring of the next year, Pioneer Metals Corporation purchased the Stibnite heap- leach gold mine from the Mobil Corporation (Mitchell 2000:153). Pioneer continued its operation through 1990. • In 1991, Pegasus Gold took over ownership of the mine as a result of a lawsuit against Pioneer Metals (Mitchell 2000:159). • In the middle of 1991, MinVen Gold Corporation purchased the mine from Pegasus. About 100 workers continued to work at the mine. MinVen Gold Corporation changed its name to Dakota Mining, and a subsidiary, Stibnite Mine, Inc. (SMI), operated the mine through mid-1997. In 1998, SMI filed for bankruptcy protection. In the mid-1990s, Stibnite was cited for water quality violations, and cyanide and other hazardous materials were found in surface waters. With the listing of Chinook salmon as a federally-endangered species in 1993, the transportation of fuel to the mine became an issue. No work was done at the mine in 1994 while a biological opinion was completed for the mining operation and fuel haul (Mitchell 2000). Mining resumed in mid-1995 and ended in 1997. The existing condition resulting from this past activity is detailed in the Stibnite Area Site Characterization Report (URS Corporation 2000).

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References Mitchell, Victoria E. 2000 History of the Stibnite Mining Area, Valley County, Idaho. Idaho Geological Survey, University of Idaho, Moscow. Hart, Arthur A. 1981 Chapter 2: A Historical Summary and Cultural Resource Study of Yellow Pine, Stibnite, and Cinnabar, Valley County, Idaho, Stibnite Mining Project. In Cultural Resources Inventory/Assessment Package Environmental Impact statement, Stibnite Mining Project Gold Mine and Mill May, 1981. Manuscript on file at the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office, Boise, Idaho. Butterman, W.C. and J. F. Carlin, Jr. 2004 Mineral Commodity Profiles: Antimony. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 03-019. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington. Bailey, H.D. 1978 Stibnite Idaho. Manuscript on file at the Idaho State Historical Society Vertical File, Boise, Idaho. Wells, Merle W. 1983 Gold Camps & Silver Cities. Idaho Department of Lands, Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 22. Moscow, Idaho. James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, Inc. 1981 Cultural Resources Inventory/Assessment Package Environmental Impact statement, Stibnite Mining Project Gold Mine and Mill May, 1981. Manuscript on file at the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office, Boise, Idaho. Smith, N. 2000 Stibnite Area Site Characterization Report. Prepared by URS Greiner Woodward Clyde. March 16.

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