Department of Agriculture September 13, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Kootenai National Forest will prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Rock Creek Project. The project is located within the Trout Creek Ranger District, Kootenai National Forest, Sanders County, Montana, and east of Noxon, Montana. The Final EIS was made available in September 2001. The Forest Service Record of Decision was issued in June 2003. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued a Record of Decision in 2001 that provided the State's approval of the project. The SEIS will respond to the US District Court Decision in Rock Creek Alliance et al. v. USFS, Revett Silver Company, and USFWS, (CV 05-107-M-DWM and CV 08-028-M-DWM consolidated) May 4, 2010 opinion. In that opinion the Court found deficiencies in the 2001 Rock Creek Project FEIS. The court remanded the FEIS back to the Forest Service for further action and vacated the 2003 Record of Decision. The SEIS will focus on the issues directed by the Court, and will update other resource analyses, if there are significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or its impacts in order ensure appropriate analysis of the proposed mining project.