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Environmental groups sue Gianforte administration over unfulfilled records request – Daily Montanan

['Keith Schubert', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-15 00:00:00

A pair of conservation groups are suing the Gianforte Administration over allegations it did not correctly provide documents in response to a request for public records related to the governor’s decision to voluntarily dismiss “bad actor” claims against mining applicants in northwest Montana.

The Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks requested communications between Gov. Greg Gianforte and Hecla Mining Corporation, including its CEO, Phillips S. Baker Jr., as well as documents regarding the Gianforte Administration’s influence over the enforcement of the bad actor case filed against Hecla and Baker in 2018, which was dismissed last summer.

Brooke Stroyke, spokesperson for Gianforte, said his legal team processes public records requests as they come in and are in the process of fulfilling the plaintiffs’ request.

“We will honor that process and not put one party, in this case a litigious special interest group, ahead of another,” she said in an email.

The Bad Actor provision is part of Montana’s Metal Mine Reclamation Act and is meant to add accountability for companies who neglect clean-up responsibilities at mining operations. It aims to prevent those labeled as bad actors under the law from embarking on new mining operations until they have completed reclamation of past mining.

The groups are alleging the Gianforte Administration violated Montana’s Right to Know statute. The Department of Administration is also listed as a defendant.

“More than 100 days have passed since the records request was filed, but no information has been provided by either office to the public. Notably, DOA has explicitly stated that it will not furnish the requested records,” a press release from the groups about the lawsuit read.

Last year, after Gianforte took over the Governor’s Office, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality dropped a bad actor lawsuit against Baker, who was one of the leaders of Pegasus Gold Incorporated and its subsidiaries.

In the 1990s, Pegasus Gold operated multiple cyanide heap-leach gold mines in Montana, including the Zortman-Landusky, Basin Creek and Beal Mountain mines. In 1998 the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving Montanans and the federal government on the hook for more than $80 million in anticipated reclamation liabilities and water treatment obligations at its heavily contaminated mine sites, according to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Lewis and Clark County District Court.

Baker, now serving as the CEO of Hecla Mining Company, has proposed two new mines near the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness that have been the subject of two recent court decisions because the company’s mine plans failed to comply with the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act, according to the release.

And the groups want to know what role the governor played leading to the dismissal of the bad actor suits against Baker and Hecla.

“We have a fundamental, constitutional right to examine the records of state government in Montana, including any communications that the Governor’s office may have had with Hecla Mining,” Anne Hedges, director of policy and legislative affairs with the Montana Environmental Information Center, said in the press release.

While the Governor’s Office said it does not typically comment on ongoing litigation, Stroyke also said “the governor respects and honors Montanans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to know. Out of neutrality and respect for all requestors, the Governor’s Office fulfills records requests in the order they are received.”

This story has been updated with comment from the Governor’s Office.

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