Peter Werner
Custer Gallatin National Forest Supervisor’s Office
10 E. Babcock
Bozeman, MT 59715

Craig Jones
Montana Dept. of Environmental Quality
P.O. Box 200901
Helena, MT 59620-0901

RE: Emigrant Peak Area Mineral Exploration Project

Dear Mr. Werner and Mr. Jones,

I am writing to urge the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to prepare and environmental impact statement (EIS) to examine the significant environmental consequences of Lucky Minerals, Inc.’s highly controversial proposed mineral exploration project in Emigrant Gulch in the Custer Gallatin National Forest.

The agencies are considering Lucky Minerals’ formal proposal to drill more than 70 exploratory holes at 35 sites up to 2,000 feet in depth; working 20 hours a day with 15 round trips a day to at least five drilling pads on marginal roads with heavy trucks and equipment. Significant in and of itself, this is only a fraction of the company’s near-term exploration plan. Lucky Minerals’ website describes “an aggressive exploration program in the near future” that would involve intensive drilling across three drainages on the Eastern and Western flanks of Emigrant Peak. The Forest Service and DEQ must consider the full scope of the company’s planned exploration and analyze all foreseeable impacts.

Lucky Minerals’ drilling plan threatens harm to wildlife, water, and a way of life in the Paradise Valley. The area is home to grizzly bears, lynx, peregrine falcons, wolverines, big horn sheep and other wildlife. Already imperiled by dwindling habitat, lands surrounding Emigrant Peak offer some of the last refuges for many of these species. Approving Lucky Minerals’ proposal for expansive exploratory drilling will fracture this important habitat and bring imperiled species into greater human contact, causing conflicts that often lead to animal mortality.

The drilling proposal also threatens harm to Emigrant Creek and underground aquifers that are tributaries of the Yellowstone River—the lifeblood of the Paradise Valley. Increased sedimentation from roads, potential acid drainage from drill holes, and depletion of underground aquifers through artesian flow from drill holes all would impair waters that are critical to farming and ranching, recreation, and healthy fisheries.

The Forest Service and DEQ must take the required “hard look” before any decision is made on Lucky Minerals’ exploration proposal by preparing an EIS that fully considers these extraordinary circumstances and significant direct and cumulative effects, some of which are highly uncertain and involve unique or unknown risks. Paradise Valley is more precious than gold.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]