LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Environmental groups on Friday sued the U.S. state of Montana over permission for a Canadian gold mining company' s exploratory drilling plans near Yellowstone National Park.
The Park County Environmental Council and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, represented by Earth Justice, filled an indictment to the Park County District Court, listing both the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Lucky Minerals company as defendants.
In late July, DEQ gave Lucky Minerals permission to start work on mineral exploration project near Emigrant Peak, the mountain north of Yellowstone, the first National Park in the world, even though nearly 4,000 individuals, organizations and agencies submitted comments to oppose the decision.
Timothy Preso, a lawyer of Earth Justice, confirmed to Xinhua Friday that Lucky Minerals' exploration project, which plans to drill 46 exploratory holes, is the first mining work of energy companies in recent years in the Yellowstone area, which spans the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho with an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 square kilometers).
"We are really concerned that this project is just the leading edge of a much larger, much more threatening set of full-scale mining activities," Preso told Xinhua, adding that locals and environmentalists tried to stopped the exploration because it could harm the environment and the region's tourism.
According to research compiled by Larry Swanson, an economist who runs the University of Montana's Center for the Rocky Mountain West, tourists bring 1 billion U.S. dollars annually in the five counties surrounding Yellowstone that generate 13,520 jobs.
Lucky Minerals disputed that, arguing their small-scale exploration project won't harm the environment and won't lead to an open pit mine, local Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
DEQ spent more than a year working on an environmental analysis and they asked the company to put up 154,274 dollars in cash for a reclamation bond before doing any drilling.
