STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTO BY ED NORTHEN

Idaho and Sun Valley, in particular, is known for its clear, clean rivers. But the Gem State also has a long, colorful history of mining with some of those mines polluting streams and contaminating landscapes.

Sydney Anderson, mining and policy manager for Idaho Rivers United, will address the threats posed by major mining projects and much-needed reforms to the outdated 1872 mining law during a presentation open to the public on Wednesday, March 12.

The free program, presented by the Hemingway Chapter of Trout Unlimited, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, at The Argyros in Ketchum.

Idaho is littered with abandoned mines, many of which pose environmental and public health hazards. Forty percent of watersheds in the West are contaminated by mining activity, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The demand for minerals like cobalt and lithium for clean energy technologies necessitates that Idahoans come up with a way to obtain the metals to fuel a clean energy future without compromising the environment they’re trying to protect.

The Stibnite Mine on the South Fork of the Salmon River has been in the news a lot later. Other mines under discussion include the Atlanta Gold project in the headwaters of the Middle Fork Boise River, the proposed Empire Mine at Mackey near the Big Lost River, the Jevois cobalt mine west of Salmon and the Triumph Mine in the Wood River Valley’s East Fork canyon.