Oregon environmental agency protects famed North Fork Smith River from mining proposal

Oregon environmental officials have used, for the first time, a special designation to protect an iconic river — a move that could kill a long-running effort to build a nickel mine nearby.

Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission voted 5-0 Thursday to designate the North Fork Smith River — which begins in southwest Oregon and flows into California — as an Outstanding Resource Waters.  

It’s the first time the state has used the designation, and the latest victory for environmental groups that have used multiple federal and state rules to halt a mining proposal they say could foul one of the West’s most pristine river systems.  

The North Fork and mainstem Smith River are well-known for fishing and whitewater rafting, flowing through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

"Thousands of people and a number of agencies supported this designation — and for good reason," said Grant Werschkull, executive director of the Smith River Alliance. "It provides critically important protection for downstream communities and our salmon and steelhead populations."

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The designation — Outstanding Resource Waters — is a part of the Clean Water Act that allows states to protect waterbodies deemed the highest quality in the nation.

A petition was submitted in February 2016 to designate the North Fork Smith and its tributaries as an ORW. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality took public comment and put together a report that supported a special designation for the river.

“DEQ finds that the waters described in the petition qualify due to their exceptional clarity … and the valuable habitat for endangered populations of Coho salmon, several rare plant species, and other fish and wildlife,” the report said.

The designation is significant because it deals a potentially fatal blow to an international corporation’s efforts to mine nickel and other minerals from the North Fork’s watershed.  

Beginning in 2012, Red Flat Nickel Corp. proposed exploratory drilling and a possible open pit mine on a 2,350-acre site on a tributary of the North Fork near Gold Beach.

The company, based in Portland but owned mostly by a company in the United Kingdom, proposed mining nickel, cobalt, chromium and scandium.

“These are very important minerals just about everyone uses on a daily basis for phones, computers, and lots of other things in everyday life,” Obie Strickler, a spokesman for Red Flat, said in a 2015 interview with the Statesman Journal. “The project would create a high economic benefit in Curry County, and there’s value to doing it (in the United States), because we have tougher environmental rules.”

But the proposal ignited a firestorm of criticism almost immediately from environmental groups, politicians, and cities that get drinking water from the Smith River.

The project was dealt multiple setbacks, including a ban on mining in 100,000 acres issued by the Obama administration last year.  

But this designation could eliminate mining plans, according to the report by DEQ.

“The Outstanding Resource Waters designation would likely preclude any surface mining in the watershed,” the report says.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for nine years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.