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When mine officials and supporters say that the use of Lower Slate Lake is temporary and that it will be a better lake after reclamation, they are leaving out the most obvious fact of all. Lower Slate Lake will contain at least 4.5 million tons of mine waste held in check by a dam that has to last forever. Forever is a very long time, even for the skilled engineers of Coeur, the same engineers who can't seem to keep sediment out of Johnson Creek, one of the most productive salmon streams in the Berners Bay Watershed. "Blame it on the rain" just doesn't cut it guys. These 4.5 million tons of tailings behind Coeur's dam represent a threat to Berners Bay that will be present for generations. The threat may be small for any one year, but given enough time, even a small probability of a dam failure during any given year turns into a much larger threat over the long haul. Simply put, Coeur's use of Lower Slate Lake is not temporary and having several million tons of mine waste in it, behind a dam subject to failure, will not make it a better lake.

Attempts to dismiss the issue of precedent, the consequences of allowing the Kensington Mine waste disposal scheme to go unchallenged, are easy to deal with. Gov. Frank Murkowski, his own Department of Law, his new acting head of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, and the Deputy Director of the EPA have all said that the outcome of the lawsuit filed by SEACC, The Sierra Club, and Lynn Canal Conservation will set a precedent that could impact mine development in Alaska and throughout the country. Of particular interest to Alaskans concerned about clean water is the effect that the Kensington precedent will have on Northern Dynasty's plans to develop the Pebble Mine. Located in the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed the Pebble Mine, if developed, could become the largest open-pit gold mine in the country. As noted by numerous state officials, the Pebble will likely depend on using the same Bush Administration's regulatory change (that allows mine waste to be re-defined as fill material) that Coeur's Kensington Project depends on. The claim that if Coeur is allowed to get away with dumping their toxic mine waste into an alpine lake, by having it reclassified as fill, then other mining companies can dump their toxic wastes into lakes, streams and wetlands elsewhere, using the same Bush Administration regulatory change, is a valid one. That we believe this regulatory change is not only bad public policy, but that its application to the Kensington Mine project violates the Clean Water Act is obvious. It is our hope that the Corps of Engineers, which have voluntarily suspended its permit for more analysis, will not be re-issuing some dressed-up version of the same scheme. Putting lipstick on the pig so to speak.

• Mark Rorick is a chairman for the Juneau Group of the Sierra Club.