Last Friday, conservation groups filed a petition for review with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) challenging a permit the agency issued early this year to Perpetua Resources for the Stibnite Gold Project, a proposed mine 12 miles east of Yellow Pine, Idaho, on lands in the Boise and Payette National Forests and private holdings. DEQ failed to comply with the Clean Water Act in developing the permit, which, if uncorrected, would allow the mine to unlawfully discharge toxic pollutants, including arsenic and mercury, into water bodies that are already suffering from the effects of past mining.
In addition, the permit would allow the company to heat up nearby creeks home to threatened bull trout. The East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River and Meadow Creek are each already formally listed as impaired for high temperature, arsenic, and antimony pollution. DEQ also failed to require the most up-to-date treatment technology for 120 million tons of tailings the mine is expected to create.
“Gold and antimony may be considered ‘critical minerals’ by some, but the cost is simply too high if DEQ doesn’t follow the laws that require safeguarding our already impaired public resources,” said Andrew Hawley, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “Perpetua is in this to extract and sell public minerals for private profit. DEQ should know better than to ignore the law and perpetuate harm to the Salmon River and threatened bull trout.”
The proposed mine site is adjacent to the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area and within the homelands of the Nez Perce Tribe. The sprawling operation would include three open pits, ore processing facilities, roads, transmission lines, and on-site worker housing. It would clear thousands of acres of vegetation, destroy hundreds of acres of wetlands, eliminate fish and wildlife habitat, generate billions of pounds of toxic mine waste, and impair surface water and groundwater regimes well past the life of the mine.
“DEQ has consistently put the interests of Perpetua Resources and this mine over the interests of the environment and environmental law,” said Will Tiedemann, regulatory conservation associate at the Idaho Conservation League. “With questionable antimony production, this mine’s primary interest is private profit from gold. Clean water will always be more important than gold, a concept that appears lost on DEQ.”
“The Salmon River watershed offers some of the best remaining habitat in the Lower 48 for bull trout and salmon,” said Bryan Hurlbutt, staff attorney at Advocates for the West. “Our fish already face significant threats from dams and climate change. They don’t need the Stibnite Gold Mine.”
“The health of the South Fork Salmon watershed, as well as the fish and people who depend on it, must not be sacrificed for gold. Mining has polluted 40% of watersheds in the Western U.S.,” said Jared Naimark, western mining senior manager at Earthworks. “The Clean Water Act is meant to protect and clean up these polluted waters. Perpetua Resources cannot be allowed to discharge toxic pollutants from the Stibnite Gold Mine into already impaired waters without additional steps to improve water quality.”
“Idahoans value clean water and healthy fisheries more than slipshod and unlawful permitting that only benefits stock portfolios of out-of-state and out-of-country investors,” said Fred Coriell, board member of Save the South Fork Salmon. “Unfortunately, the lust for golden profits has made it necessary to remind DEQ that the Clean Water Act is designed to limit consequences of the proposed Stibnite Gold Project, not perpetuate them.”
“It is unacceptable that a project projected to generate billions in profits is not being held to the bare minimum for water quality standards,” said Sydney Anderson, mining and policy manager for Idaho Rivers United. “DEQ is sending the wrong message about whose interests come first, and Idahoans deserve better.”
Stibnite Gold Project background:
Under the proposed action plan, Perpetua would spend the first three years constructing infrastructure and preparing for mining operations. The operational construction and mining activities would take place over an estimated 15 years, while mine closure and reclamation would take place during years 16 to 25. According to Perpetua, gold accounts for 96% of the project profits and antimony only 4%.
The operation footprint extends across areas in the North Fork Payette River and South Fork Salmon River subbasins. The project proposes discharging into the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River (EFSFSR) and Meadow Creek. As part of the systems associated with these proposed discharges, Perpetua intends to construct surface water and stormwater diversions, a tunnel diversion for the EFSFSR, a tunnel diversion for Meadow Creek, a diversion for West End Creek, water storage ponds, open pit dewatering wells, active and passive water treatment systems, and various water conveyance pipelines and storage tanks.
The Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers United, Save the South Fork Salmon, and Earthworks submitted joint written comments for the proposed permit on July 21, 2025. The petitioners raised numerous concerns, including that DEQ failed to (1) develop the necessary and appropriate technology based effluent limitations for the facility; (2) to properly document and explain in its fact sheet how it calculated those limits and thus prevented the petitioners from providing meaningful public comment on those limitations; (3) develop the necessary and appropriate water quality based effluent limitations for the facility; (4) develop the necessary and appropriate effluent limitations to protect threatened bull trout; and (5) develop effluent limits on the total mass of each pollutant discharged from the facility. On January 30, 2026, DEQ issued the final permit, with no changes in response to the petitioners’ comments.
Contacts:
Andrew Hawley, Western Environmental Law Center, 206-487-7250, hawley@westernlaw.org
Will Tiedemann, Idaho Conservation League, 208-345-6933 x 213, wtiedmann@idahoconservation.org
Sydney Anderson, Idaho Rivers United, 208-343-7481 x 2005, Sydney@idahorivers.org
Bryan Hurlbutt, Advocates for the West, 208-342-7024 x 206, bhurlbutt@advocateswest.org
Claire Hermann, Earthworks, 202-601-3043, chermann@earthworks.org
Fred Coriell, Save the South Fork Salmon, 208-315-3630, fredcoriell@gmail.com
English 
Español de México