US Supreme Court Says Go Ahead and Kill The Fish – It’s OK With Us!

In a distinct reversal from what environmentalists were expecting under the new Obama administration, the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday in the favour of a US mining company which was seeking permission to dump tailings from a gold mine in Alaska into a lake. An environmental study had concluded that the action would kill all of the fish in the lake, which apparently was just fine with the US Supreme Court.

The vote wasn’t even split down the middle; it was 6-3. This could set a very dangerous precedent as to how mine waste is dumped across the rest of the US.

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. was issued a permit by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2005 to dump 4.5 million tons of waste into Lower Slate Lake from their Kensington mine, just north of Juneau, Alaska. The disputed site is within Tongass National Forest, where it was ruled that the Corps, and not the EPA, have final authority over the matter.

Environmentalists are now hoping that the Obama administration will repeal Bush-era changes to the Clean Water Act that allowed the Corps to issue this permit.

Here is a list of their campaign contributions, most notably all to the Republican Party.

Please find following a full list of their board of directors so that you can put a face to the shame.

Dennis E. Wheeler
Chairman & CEO, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp.
Shown here opening the NYSE
Here is his Forbes profile, including salary.

Mitchell J. Krebs Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer	Richard M. Weston Senior Vice President, Operations	Donald J. Birak Senior Vice President, Exploration
Thomas T. Angelos Senior Vice President & Chief Accounting Officer	Kelli Kast Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer	Luke J. Russell Vice President, Environmental Services
Larry A. Nelson Vice President, Human Resources	Kenneth L. Koski Controller	Alfredo Cruzat Senior Vice President, Exploration, Coeur South America
K. Leon Hardy Senior Vice President, North American Operations	Donald P. Gray Senior Vice President, South American Operations	Godfrey B. Mramba Vice President and Managing Director, Coeur Tanzania Ltd.
Thomas C. Henderson Vice President & General Manager, Kensington Project	Stuart Mathews Vice President & General Manager, Palmarejo Project	Humberto Rada President, Coeur South America