2025 Fall/Winter Case Notes
Get the latest on the work we’re doing to protect the West’s public lands, water, fish, and wildlife! Read the latest edition of our Case Notes newsletter here.
Advocates for the West joins call to withdraw Emergency NEPA Procedures
Advocates for the West recently joined Earthjustice and conservation organizations from across the country to raise objections to the Department of the Interior’s Emergency National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Procedures, announced on April 23, and to the Council on Environmental Quality letter of the same date authorizing those alternative arrangements. The Emergency Procedures are premised on […]
Objections Filed Against Stibnite Gold Mine, CuMo Exploration Project Environmental Reviews, Draft Approvals
In recent weeks, Advocates for the West and our partners compiled and submitted formal objections against two separate—and significantly flawed—environmental reviews and draft approvals of mining activity in Idaho. Stibnite Gold Mine On October 18, a coalition of Advocates for the West’s conservation partners submitted objections to the final Environmental Impact Statement and draft Record […]
Permit invalid for proposed Stibnite Gold Mine over arsenic air pollution concerns
The Idaho Board of Environmental Quality issued a decision invalidating Perpetua Resources’ air pollution permit for the proposed Stibnite Gold Mine in Valley County. Blasting and hauling operations at the proposed mine would emit massive amounts of arsenic-laden dust. The Board found that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) failed to follow Idaho air pollution […]
3-28-24 Voices for the West — Mining in the Modern Era: Poised to Repeat the Mistakes of the Past
We’re joined by Haley Sweetland Edwards, a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly and author of the article “Showdown at Railroad Valley”; Josh Johnson, Central Idaho Director at the Idaho Conservation League; and Bryan Hurlbutt, Staff Attorney at Advocates for the West. The panel discusses shortcomings of the 1872 Mining Law, efforts to reform it, […]
Fighting to protect water quality and wildlife along the “High Divide”
Advocates for the West recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of Idaho Conservation League (ICL) and Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s latest approval of a five-year gold exploration project in the Centennial Mountains near the agricultural community of Kilgore in eastern Idaho. The project, about 80 miles north of Idaho Falls on the Caribou-Targhee National […]