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Opponents of a mineral exploration project in the Black Hills have filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service to block it from going forward.
NDN Collective, a Native American rights group, was joined in the lawsuit by Black Hills Clean Water Alliance and Earthworks. The groups object to the project, known as the Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project, arguing it will take place near a high-altitude meadow sacred to Native Americans – they call it Pe’ Sla – and that it could threaten drinking water in the Black Hills.
“The Pe’ Sla area, including both the prairie and the more forested lands nearby, are ecologically unique and include important surface water resources,” the lawsuit says.
Pete Lien & Sons, a Rapid City based construction aggregate and mining company, applied to the Forest Service for permission to explore for graphite on lands managed by the Forest Service. According to the Forest Service’s description of the project, Pete Lien & Sons would drill up to 18 holes on pads in search of graphite. Each hole would be three inches in diameter and up to 1,000 feet deep.
Graphite has widespread industrial uses, including in batteries used by electric vehicles. It’s also used by the steel industry and in manufacturing.
The Forest Service’s Decision Memo on the project, which was issued in February, includes allowing Pete Lien & Sons to install temporary roads connecting the drill zone to Forest Service roads. Drilling would be done with water, and the site would accommodate up to three track or trailer drill rigs, a water truck, support pickups, utility vehicles, a backhoe and skid loader.
Exploratory operations were expected to conclude within 12 months of starting. That could include two 12-hour shifts a day to meet the project’s schedule. The Decision Memo requires Pete Lien & Sons to restore the area at the conclusion of the project, and it allows inspections by personnel from the Forest Service or the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
In 2014, the Interior Department moved to put the 2,000 acres comprising Pe’ Sla into trust for the benefit of four tribes. The trust comprises a 51.2 percent interest to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, a 29.9 percent interest for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a 12 percent interest for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and an interest of 6.9 percent to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. Those tribes had successfully raised $9 million in 2012 to buy the land.
“Pe’ Sla is a high-elevation grassland located in the heart of He Sapa (Black Hills),” the lawsuit argues. “It is an important home to an ecologically significant landscape characterized by unique assemblages of native plant species, serving as a critical habitat refuge within an otherwise fragmented landscape. The disturbance inherent in the proposed drilling at or immediately adjacent to this sensitive area poses serious and potentially permanent ecological risks.”
The decision to allow graphite exploration also violates a memorandum of understanding that the Forest Service signed with tribes promising to protect lands within two miles of Pe’ Sla, the lawsuit contends. The drilling would occur within that buffer.
The plaintiffs accuse the Forest Service of failing to follow the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by allowing the drilling.
They are represented by Tracey Zephier and Bruce Ellison of Rapid City. Roger Flynn and Jeffrey Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project from Lyons, Colo. are also representing the plaintiffs.
