Monsanto Aims To Stop Leaks At Idaho Mine Dump

JOHN MILLER

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Monsanto Co. is installing a water management system at an Idaho phosphate mine the company depends on to make its Roundup weedkiller to stop the leakage of selenium and heavy metals into a tributary of the Blackfoot River.

The company hopes capturing runoff and underground water will remedy problems at the waste rock dump below its South Rasmussen Ridge Mine that have resulted in Clean Water Act violation notices from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Monsanto is seeking federal approval for a new mine nearby, called Blackfoot Bridge, to supply the phosphate for Roundup; activist groups have demanded it first remedy old problems like South Rasmussen's dump.

The St. Louis-based company says this water management system would have been built regardless of its efforts to mine elsewhere in the region near the Idaho-Wyoming border.

"Our engineers have extensively studied this issue, and believe this design will work," said Dave Farnsworth, who heads Monsanto's phosphate mining operations in Soda Springs in southeastern Idaho.

Mines owned by Monsanto, the J.R. Simplot Co., and Canadian-based Agrium Inc. in Idaho's rich phosphate belt have come under increasing scrutiny since selenium pollution began killing hundreds of livestock starting in the 1990s.

None of the reported deaths have occurred at Monsanto mines, but 18 cattle died of selenium poisoning this August after eating contaminated plants near an inactive mine whose lease is controlled by Simplot.