On Monday, May 15 the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) announced an approval of the Opencut Mine Gravel Pit near Elbow Lake.
On March 16, the DNRC issued a press release in the Pathfinder, alerting the public to a permit being considered which would open a gravel pit and asphalt production facility near Elbow Lake in Greenough. LHC Inc of Kalispell, applied for the permit and sought to provide materials for a nearby road work project on Highway 83.
The permit marked the second time that LHC has filed to mine gravel near Elbow Lake, and the second time that the residents of the area expressed outrage over the proposal.
As is standard procedure, the DNRC opened the public comment for one month.
Despite 46 pages of comments from local residents expressing concerns over the environmental impact and effects on their lifestyles, the DNRC determined that impacts from the opencut mine would not be seriously detrimental to the local wildlife or those living in the area.
As part of their decision to approve the project, the DNRC released a 115 page informational packet explaining their findings and addressing the concerns raised by the public.
“The pit would not be visible from Elbow Lake or the cabin sites along the lake,” the packet explains, “The pit would be visible for motorists traveling upon Montana Highway 83 for approximately 1,000 feet of the route. With the construction of berms, it is expected that the site would not be visible from the cemetery. The site would not use artificial light and the pit would be limited to daytime hours of operation. (...) Visual impacts from the selection of the action alternative would be expected to be minor and short-term.”
Although it does express that the gravel pit can only operate during daylight hours, it does not address concerns raised by local residents that that condition might not be honored.
The packet features an exhaustive list of animal and plant life in the area of the proposed pit but states that the risks imposed upon the flora and fauna is minimal and very temporary.
According to the DNRC packet, “The FWP suggested several mitigative stipulations which have been implemented.”
“No further potential for disturbance to threatened, endangered, or sensitive wildlife would be anticipated,” the packet reads.
An alternative site near Brown’s Lake in Ovando was proposed numerous times through public comment, but was determined by the DNRC to be too far of a haul. Furthermore, the project is based upon prospective earnings in the State of Montana School Trust Lands program which puts the money earned from the permitted use into a trust for an educational institution in Montana.
Funds from the Elbow Lake Gravel Pit go to Pine Hills School, a reform school, located in Miles City which also receives income from the cabin leases on Elbow Lake.
“Commentors (sic) communicated there are other pits nearby the proposed project area, that are already in operation,” the report reads. “The Department is required to analyze the application as applied for. The utilization of nearby pits on private ground are not within the scope of this analysis.”
The permit for an opencut mine in the Elbow Lake area has been processed and approved by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and DNRC.
To read the informational packet in full, visit the DNRC website at the following link:
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