Fossil water would be tapped for Black Hills drilling project

Update:

Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA Forest Service announced a proposal to protect cultural and natural resources in the Pactola Reservoir – Rapid Creek Watershed, including drinking water for Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base, from the adverse impacts of mineral exploration and development. This process will invite participation by the public, Tribes, state, and local government, as well as other stakeholders interested in the stewardship of these lands and waters. The Secretary of the Interior has the authority to withdraw these lands for a maximum of 20 years, subject to renewal; only Congress can legislate a permanent withdrawal. [press release]

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South Dakota is no stranger to ecocide because it's a way of life in the chemical toilet. Under the General Mining Law of 1872 even foreign miners have carte blanche to rape the Black Hills, so they are. 

Land seized from the Great Sioux Nation had been remanded to the tribes under treaty but Congress broke the agreement to pay down Civil War debt then exploited the Custer Expedition's discovery of gold in the Black Hills. 

Often powerless to resist the extractive industry the Black Hills National Forest took comments on a 2021 proposal from F3 Gold to drill on 2,500 sites near Silver City and explore above the Rapid Creek inlet to Pactola Reservoir on claims that actually extend into the lake. Now F3 wants to drill west of a town named for a war criminal.

But this is another post is about water. 

Exploratory holes normally take millions of gallons of water but the drillers usually sell their data to bigger miners like Barrick, a Canadian earth raper. And speaking of pooping in your own water supplies then begging for money for pipeline boondoggles: watering lawns, golf courses, feedlots, a ramen factory in Belle Fourche, the Bismarck Trail Ranch and Rally campgrounds with tax dollars is a boondoggle—taxpayer money spent on carving through Native America for white privilege? Now an out of state miner wants to tap fossil water for mineral exploration on public lands?

Project plans indicate no surface water source would be used for the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of water per day needed for each drill rig. "All water will be sourced from an approved municipal or industrial source," wrote F3 Gold in their plan of operations, submitted Aug. 15, 2022. [Forest Service says Black Hills gold exploration project will continue, regardless of public outcry]

Learn more at the Black Hills National Forest website.