Three environmental groups are suing the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for approving an expansion for the Bull Mountain Mine that would open up more land for coal mining, but which the groups say would continue to damage water supplies for ranchers, destroy cultural artifacts sacred to Native American tribes and contribute significantly to climate change.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys for Earthjustice on behalf of the Bull Mountains Land Alliance, Northern Plains Resource Council and the Montana Environmental Information Center. The Bull Mountain Mine is located between Roundup and Billings and straddles the Yellowstone-Musselshell county line. The mine is approximately 30 miles north of Billings.

The lawsuit challenges an Aug. 1 decision by the Montana DEQ of approving a mine expansion that would add 12.7 million tons of coal to the existing permit. However, the groups say that the Bull Mountain Mine, and its corporate owners, Signal Peak Energy, have repeatedly ignored worker safety, pollution and devastating environmental impacts, including impacting groundwater that ranchers need for livestock. They also claim the DEQ did a lesser intensive environmental analysis instead of the more rigorous environmental impact statement in order to avoid more scrutiny by scientists and the public.

The lawsuit claims that burning the new portion of coal will lead to approximately 18 million metric tons of carbon dioxide being released.

The mine has been the subject of multiple scandals and investigations throughout the years, ranging from a faked kidnapping to bogus accident reports to allegations that the company is forcing ranchers off the land by failing to provide water after the mining disrupts the water supply.

“The Bull Mountains Mine is an underground, long wall mining operation, which allows the mine roof to collapse or subside as the mining process advances,” the lawsuit explains. “The subsidence causes a splitting and depression of the surface land above the mining operation. Subsidence from the mine has dewatered springs and wells and caused extensive fracturing of the land.”

Attorneys for the group point out that the Montana officials have also downplayed or not addressed the effects of climate change caused by the mine, which the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 called “deeply troubling.”

Hydrology experts in the DEQ’s own material said that the mine may not be able to provide 6 gallons of water per minute that it will need to replenish water for agriculture because of the impact the mining will have on groundwater.

“The mine’s cumulative impacts are draining and will continue to drain water from the Bull Mountains huge volumes (hundreds of gallons per minute) for decades, which the deep aquifer cannot support,” the lawsuit said.

The groups have also pointed out that monitoring wells required by the government to gauge water in the area show that the deep aquifer which feeds the region has already shown declines in the past decades, “despite relatively insignificant withdrawals.”

“In fact, DEQ’s response … admits water levels are already declining in the deep aquifer monitoring wells and that the agency does not know why,” the lawsuit said. “Thus, the record does not indicate that the already declining deep aquifer can support substantial additional withdrawals to mitigate the water that is being drained by the mine.”

Tribal concerns

The groups raised concerns about the tribal connections to the area and some of the artifacts that have been found near or on the site. Tribes that have traditional ties to the Bull Mountains include the Crow, Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Assiniboine, Shoshone and Arapaho.

A new cultural survey of the land conducted in 2023 shows a prehistoric petroglyph, or rock art, of a “V-neck warrior” within the mine expansion area. Though the DEQ claims to be working with native groups, the lawsuit claims that the state agency did not consult with any of them.

“DEQ failed to consult with all interested tribes,” the lawsuit said. “Inexplicably, DEQ failed to consult with the majority of the identified interest Tribes, including many of those that had previously expressed opposition to the mine.”

Moreover, the lawsuit claims that the DEQ has been playing semantic games to try to side-step the issue.

“DEQ failed to explain the inconsistency in stating that the area is somehow ‘sacred’ but not ‘unique,’” the lawsuit said.

Ranching concerns

The lawsuit also said that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality is actually helping to force ranchers off the property by failing to require the Bull Mountain Mine and its owners to provide adequate back-up water that is lost through the process of underground coal mining.

“Plaintiffs note that Signal Peak itself has determined that remediation of damaged water resources is too expensive, ‘inconvenient,’ and ‘unsustainable,’ the lawsuit said.

They said that officials at the DEQ went along with the mine’s decision to reduce the amount of water replacement the mine had been giving.

“Plaintiffs noted that DEQ’s decision to reduce Signal Peak’s water replacement obligations without informing a local rancher caused a ‘meaningful net-loss of usable water’ to the rancher,” the lawsuit said.

In its filings, the groups said they’re concerned that if the DEQ doesn’t uphold water rules that will cause Signal Peak to run any remaining ranchers off the land.

“Under DEQ’s policy, if there are no ranchers in the Bull Mountains, Signal Peak has no reclamation obligations,” the suit said.

Workplace safety

The lawsuit also pointed out the checkered past of Signal Peak and its management, which include a fake kidnapping, drug deals and even trips to the hospital with employees being bribed to take responsibility for an accident that happened at the mine.

The lawsuit characterized Signal Peak’s ownership as a history of “violating worker safety laws.” Those violation include 122 accidents and more than 1,600 citations for mine safety violations.

The environmental groups are asking the Yellowstone County District Court to uphold the protections of the Montana Environmental Policy Act, and ordering the DEQ to prepare a full environmental impact statement, invalidating the previous environmental assessment.