Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: January 17, 2001

DOI: John Wright 202-208-6416
BLM: Jan Bedrosian 916-978-4610
BLM-CDCA Doran Sanchez 909-697-5220

Secretary Babbitt Denies Gold Mine in
Imperial County, California

Citing impacts to nationally significant historic resources and Native American values that cannot be adequately mitigated to meet requirements of Federal law, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt today signed a decision denying an open pit, cyanide heap leach mining project proposed on public lands in eastern Imperial County, Calif.

The mine, called the Imperial Project, is proposed by Glamis Imperial Corp. of Winterhaven, Calif., on 1,571 acres of unpatented mining claims located about 45 miles northeast of El Centro, Calif., and 20 miles northwest of Yuma, Ariz.

The decision signed by the Secretary, as recommended by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which administers the public lands involved, is based upon the following key factors determined to be unique to this particular proposal:

• the proposed project is located in an area determined to have nationally significant Native American values and historic properties and would cause unavoidable adverse impacts to these resources.
• the proposed project will result in unavoidable adverse impacts to visual quality in this substantially undisturbed landscape.
• the impacts of the proposed project cannot be mitigated to the point of meeting the statutory requirement in the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) that BLM must prevent "undue impairment" of the public lands in the Congressionally designated California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA).
• the proposed project is inconsistent with the CDCA plan.
• the identified unavoidable and adverse environmental impacts resulting from the project override the possible economic benefits that might be derived from the project.
• the proposed project fails to meet the overall statutory requirement in FLPMA that BLM must prevent "unnecessary or undue degradation" of the public land resources.

The determination that the area involved contains nationally significant cultural and historic resources and Native American values critical to the nearby Quechan Indian Tribe is based upon extensive study and documentation supported by findings of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). The ACHP advised the Department that the project, even with all feasible mitigation measures, would result in "serious and irreparable degradation of the sacred and historic values" in the area and would "effectively destroy" the identified national historic resources.

The decision is also based upon a legal opinion issued by the Department of the Interior's Solicitor on December 27, 1999, which concluded that FLPMA provided the authority to BLM to deny the mine if it was determined that undue impairment to the CDCA resources would result from permitting the mine.

Under the project proposal, up to 150 million tons of ore would be mined and leached, and 300 million tons of waste rock would be mined and deposited on the site. The facilities would include the mine and processing area, open pits, waste rock and topsoil stockpiles, heap leach pads, administrative and maintenance buildings, a precious metal recovery plant, haul roads, an electrical substation, and distribution lines.

The project has been in the permitting process since 1995. BLM, as the lead Federal agency, and Imperial County, as the State lead agency, jointly issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for public comment in 1996. Due to public concerns raised about the cultural impacts, a second draft EIS/EIR was published in 1997 and a final EIS/EIR was published in November 2000. Approximately 1,000 public comments were received over the 11 months of public review on the proposal.

The decision is available online at http://www.ca.blm.gov. Copies have been mailed to all those who commented on the EIS/EIR and review copies are available from BLM's El Centro Field Office at 1661 S. 4^th St., El Centro, Calif., 92243, telephone (760) 337-4400.

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