Eric Gibbons has just enough water for the house where he lives with his wife and two grandkids — enough to run the shower, do the laundry, and maintain their vegetable garden, which they plan to rely on more now with food prices rising.

“Unless something goes haywire, like I leave a sprinkler on overnight, or a hose pump,” Gibbons said. “Then we’re out of water and it has to recharge a while. But that’s OK, we’ve been here almost 30 years, and that’s just the way it is.”

If Rise Gold Corp. succeeds in reopening the Idaho-Maryland Mine, Gibbons fears he may no longer have just enough.

Rise is the third company to attempt to reopen the mine in the past 27 years. If approved, the company would first have to dewater the shafts and tunnels starting 100 feet underground, and maintain that dewatered state for the projected 80 years of mining operations, a process that will reduce, or draw down, the amount of water in nearby wells.

In January, the county released the draft environmental impact report, in which an independent consultant hired by the county reviewed all potential problems posed by the mine, determined their level of significance, and proposed mitigation measures. But while Rise says the report proves that mining won’t dewater wells, local advocacy groups and well owners themselves feel far from reassured.

One major point of contention arising from the draft EIR is the number of wells at risk.

Prior to mitigation measures, the document designates the threat to “substantially decrease groundwater supplies or interfere substantially with groundwater recharge” as “significant.” Required measures, including a Groundwater Mitigation Plan, would lower the threat to “less than significant.”

Part of that plan would require Rise Gold to pay for a Nevada Irrigation District water line to 30 well owners on East Bennett Road, where wells are the most in danger of dewatering, according to a groundwater model submitted by consultants Itasca Denver on behalf of Rise.

The model predicts that only seven wells in the East Bennett area should experience greater than a 10% reduction, the level required for significance. Rise Gold will include all 30 along East Bennett as part of a “conservative approach,” CEO Ben Mossman said.

But concerned well owners, advocacy groups, and NID all say that 30 is not enough.

“The mere notion that only 30 homes could be impacted is pure craziness,” said Christy Hubbard, a well owner herself and one of the leaders of the wells coalition, a group of over 100 well owners and concerned residents.

The coalition asserts that reopening the mine could endanger roughly 525 wells within a half mile of the 2,585-acre mineral rights area, where Rise Gold could legally mine below people’s homes. Hubbard is also a member of MineWatch, a group formed out of the Community Environmental Advocates Foundation, which has placed the number at over 300.

The Idaho-Maryland Mine is currently flooded with water starting at around 250 feet below ground surface (bgs), while most nearby wells reach depths between 100 and 400 feet bgs. The dewatering process would occur 24/7 for 160 days at a rate of 2,500 gallons per minute (gpm), lowering the water level from around 250 feet to 3,460 feet bgs, where the workings end.

Afterward, maintaining the dewatered state will require the continuous pumping at a rate of around 850 gpm, with a maximum of 2,500 gpm, for the remainder of the project. Meanwhile, Rise plans to mine at a depth of at least 500 feet throughout the mineral rights area, though it cannot predict the extent or location of the mining until it is already underway.

“It is expected that the actual mining areas will change from the modeled mining areas due to vein geometry and discoveries, which will only be known after extensive underground exploration is completed in the future,” states Itasca Denver’s groundwater model report.

Many skeptics have also raised the possibility that encountering surprise fractures in the bedrock during mining could suddenly dewater or contaminate nearby wells, which is what happened at the Siskon Gold Mine in the 1990s. But the draft EIR states that fractures, if encountered, “would not transmit significant quantities of water” because most mining operations occur at depths below where big fractures would occur.

For many wells beyond the East Bennett area, the projected drawdown ranges from 1 to 6 feet, but less than a 10% reduction, leading the draft EIR to conclude that “the project would not have any significant impact on groundwater supplies” in these areas.

But at a March 24 Planning Commission meeting, where commissioners heard public comment, NID requested for the EIR to include monitoring of wells in the Greenhorn, Woodrose, and Beaver areas, and, if needed, also supply them with NID water. NID’s general manager suggested Rise Gold put up a $14 million bond to cover all potential costs.

Eric Gibbon’s well was included in 1995. Now it is not.

The variance between the wells at risk in prior EIRs is due to the model used, said Mossman. Rise’s consultants used a 3D finite element model, which produces more accurate predictions, while past consultants used a 2D model.

Nevertheless, the model has raised concerns. The CEA hired its own independent consultants, Baseline Engineering, to review the model along with the rest of the draft EIR. In a March 30 letter to the Board of Supervisors, the CEA wrote that the model relied on sparse data, such as only one water level measurement from the Union Hill mine in 1956, and “old and limited” measurements from private wells, introducing greater amounts of uncertainty.

Baseline Engineering concluded that the project may endanger the quality and quantity of well water “in a much wider area than is indicated in the DEIR,” according to the letter.

Much of the data used to generate the model is at least 15 years old, derived from consultant group Todd Engineers’ report for a 2007 EIR.

“It might be off by a factor of two, it could be half as much or twice as much,” June Oberdorfer, a hydrogeologist who studied the consultants’ reports for MineWatch, said of the model.

Rise Gold and MineWatch have also both obtained their data on current nearby wells from the state’s Department of Water Resources records, but some wells, like Sarah Hendricksons’, may not be included in those records at all.

Hendrickson lives on Idaho-Maryland Road, not far from East Bennett, but she said that her well doesn’t exist in state records, and neither do many of her neighbors’. Because they live on a mountain, their wells also produce significantly less than average; Henderson’s pumps only 4 gallons per minute.

“If we lose water, we’re pretty much in dire straits,” she said.

Renate Otto has now lived through three mine reopening attempts. In 2007, Todd Engineers labeled her well the third most endangered. Now, it’s one of the 30 designated for NID water.

Only Otto doesn’t want NID water at all. Her well pumps 40 gallons per minute. She had the water quality tested several years ago, and she’s satisfied with the results.

“It’s pretty darn pure,” she said.

Rise will foot the bill, but if the Ottos sell their home, the next owner will have to pay for the water, as specified in the draft EIR.

If the proposal goes through, NID must provide the water prior to dewatering, a process that could take between five to 10 months, though an exact timeline is “difficult to assess,” Susan Lauer, NID communications specialist, said in an email.

Others worry the process could take much longer, which would present a problem if homes need water beyond the designated 30.

“The concept of a quick replacement of a water line is a bit fictitious,” said Dan Ketcham, who does acquisition appraisal for NID and is president of the Nevada County Historical Society. “They’re kind of hung out to dry for a long period of time.”

The draft EIR does state that, if needed, Rise Gold will be responsible for providing an immediate water supply to anyone whose well water is reduced 10% or more, though it does not specify where the water would come from.

The threat to “violate any water quality standards or waste discharge requirements or otherwise substantially degrade surface or ground water quality” is significant prior to mitigation measures, according to the draft EIR.

The dewatering process itself should not endanger well water quality because the water would flow away from the wells and toward the mine.

“Water quality in domestic water wells cannot be impacted by the mine dewatering,” said Mossman.

Water pumped out of the mine will be high in iron and manganese, “constituents of concern,” according to the draft EIR. The mitigation measures require a water treatment plant, a clay-lined pond where workers will remove any contaminants before releasing the water into South Fork Wolf Creek.

Mossman is still facing legal action for two spills that occurred when he oversaw a previous mining operation, Banks Island, in Canada, which polluted tribal waters, leading MineWatch to argue that he is unfit to lead another operation. But Mossman said that those spills occurred due to “errors in the workforce” and a more crude method of water treatment using sumps rather than a clay-lined pond.

“(MineWatch) should focus more on the specifics than this general, anti-mine rhetoric,” he added.

As the draft EIR stands now, many uncertainties will remain unless the project goes forward, such as up-to-date groundwater levels and quality, the actual geology underground, and the extent of the mining itself.

The county consultant is now preparing a final EIR, responding to the issues raised.

Rise Gold has faith in the current version. On Feb. 11, the company sent a letter to well owners in the vicinity.

“The county has determined that no domestic water wells will be drained by mine dewatering,” the letter, signed by Mossman, states, later adding, “The county has determined that there is no threat to water quality to domestic water wells from the Idaho-Maryland Mine project.”

The letter did not mitigate their fears.

“This claim crosses the boundary from misleading into true misinformation,” Otto said.

Eric Gibbons won’t feel secure until he receives a 100% guarantee of an immediate water supply, paid for by Rise Gold, if his well runs dry.

“That is likely to not be economically feasible for them,” he said. “I’m sorry about that, but with what they’re trying to do, that’s what the cost will be.”

Shira Moolten is a freelancer with The Union

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