I am Jeff Eido. This is Lunacy where we discern the sacred from the insane and admit that whether we like it or not, we are all profoundly affected by the cycles of the moon. How today on the podcast, the mind part. If you didn't hear last week's episode, I highly encourage you to do so. , Tony, Lori, and I go even deeper into the travesty that this mind represents for our community.
How our local leaders appear to be failing to stop it from happening, and how critically important it is for you, me and all of our brothers and sisters to get involved and take a stand. We also throw in some lunacy for good measure. Tony is a fellow lunatic and he doesn't fail to let his light shine. On this week's episode, you are in for a treat all. Enjoy this week's episode of Lunacy. Excellent. Welcome back. Yeah, this is the mine update . I think we were together in March.
That's what I'm saying. All right. All right. I don't know for sure cause I can't look at the phone cause it's doing the recording right now. Cause that's how I do my es. Nice. All, all right. But I'm pretty, I know it was cold and I was wearing a sweater And you were also dress dressed warmly. I, I had. . There was the one you had clothes on. Oh, okay. Yeah. We're not gonna release the other one.
Yeah. I, I like to do that whim h method of immerse yourself in the coldest of cold that you can Right naked. Yeah. Yeah. This guy's brave. That guy's brave. . Okay, good. So what's happened since March? , I got married. You came, you were at my wedding. We danced. We danced good times. And then yeah, we ate and here we are. since then, What has happened with the mine? That's the question, right?
Everyone was focused on the D E I R draft environmental report in Impact Report, draft Environmental Impact Report, right? Which also stands for Dumb and Engineering Engineering idea. Anyway, they um, thousands of pages, thousands. And the lawyers from e a community environmental advocates, , submitted many pages of flaws. and deficiencies in that report and all kinds of, they just tore it up a bunch of different organizations. The most Including Sierra Club, right? Yeah.
Uhhuh, . And I heard from professionals that a neighbor was a ex land use attorney. You said it was the very worst D E I R he had ever seen and other people told me the same thing. Oh, he would know cuz he's a land use attorney. Yes. Told me. They look at those kind of things. Right. They look at all that stuff. That's a land use attorney business right now. We're thinking, okay, great. Mm-hmm. , this is right. It's gonna, it's out. We're done. See you later. Prize gold.
So since then though, we've, trans mutated into some. Twilight Zone. What's that TV show that's so popular, man? Where they stranger thinks where they go into the upside down world. Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, holy shit. It's weird and dark and there's like bizarre monsters and I can't remember what else, but there's some stuff in there, man. Yeah. And that's just what has been happening. Mm-hmm. . recently.
They said, okay, we made just a couple little changes and now here's the final environmental impact report. When you say they, do you mean Rise Gold made a couple of little changes, or the county was like, the county, no, you gotta fix this. And then the, here we go. The county reviews the whole thing. Okay. And then , they make. Changes what we were hoping because it was so bad. It was so significantly terrible. Just significantly the, the worst thing. Mm-hmm.
. We were hoping they would say, you gotta redo it. And redocument, you have to redo the draft environment, right? It's called recirculate, which means, okay, throw it out, start over, kind of a thing, right? And. They didn't, they went, oh, it's a couple little changes and now we're going to submit this as the final e i r. Right. right before they submitted, or I guess before they announced the final mm-hmm.
, we did a present presentation to the board of supervisors, five of us, including the c e Community Environmental Advocates President. But we stood up and you each, you get three minutes to talk. Mm-hmm. , which is an again, ridiculous here we are pleading, begging for our safety. Okay. You get three minutes. So we monopolize it and we had five of us. Three minutes a piece.
Basically what we wanted to do was, , impress upon the board that we need a well monitoring program for the 300 plus wells that are in the area. and without that, that would then monitor the wells for a couple, like a, a three years. Three years. Because you have to do one, you have to cover all the different climate changes through over a period of three years. Oh, I see. So they would've to wait. That's right. They would've to wait three years.
So in some cases, three years isn't even enough to really get a good model of what's going on with your well books. Yeah. We've got a pain year, we got a drought year, we got a new, moderate year, whatever. Mm-hmm. and. We all laid out flood year, the stuff. Yeah, that there was precedent set before. , they had, no domestic well monitoring of all of our, many, of, many of us. None of that was in there. Yeah. Okay. They said, oh, we have 15.
Bores they're not domestic, they're not on anybody's property, and we're gonna use those as a as a measurement for if any, anything's happening. Okay. While we dewater. So we said no. A precedent was set. Years ago when M Gold, , came in and said, we wanna do this trailing, and they said no. Then the county then stepped up and said, no, you're gonna have to monitor a hundred and better wells and you're gonna for volume and quality. And Oh, so they're using old data.
So is that what they're doing? That's one of the other aspects. They're not even using data, that data. It's complicated. It gets so complicated. That's why I think eventually lawyers are gonna have to all get involved and sort it out. Let me ask you this, why, so we went to the the planning commission meeting, that was awesome. So we had that meeting, so we had that meeting. 400 people showed up. 500, 500, 5, sorry. 500 people, human beings to protest.
Why didn't anybody come to this meeting and 100? This is the meeting we went to is just the normal, the county board of supervisors and planning commission. One a week. Okay. All the time. Uhhuh on all the different issues that are going on. Ah-huh. . So this was an opportunity to, and the, and during that, these meetings that they have, there's a spot for a public comment on things. Mm-hmm. , hey, let's jump in to the public comment spot on their regular meeting and say Stop de presses.
We won't. Monitoring God, it ain't in there. And we live right in ground zero. We need this happening now because I love that you just went Cajun, you know what I mean? , I like that you just, just came out of the swamp. He can jump from place to place now. He's in Italy, . Okay. So you are telling them, you are saying to them, Hey, look, we, we, for us to get the marketing place, you know, All right, so you didn't, so you complained and they said, so we said, look, we need see later.
This, because it was, there was a precedent sent earlier, right? That also this data, this well, baseline data. has to be done and submitted before the D E I R is even created. Mm-hmm. , because it's gotta be the base of what they're talking about in terms of the mitigation to wells. Okay. To well issues. And so we gave them, we gave 'em what for? We told 'em all this stuff. Five of us, , talked about different aspects of this two days later. Okay, we've got the final e i r ready for viewing.
So anyway, so that was that. I got it. Here's the question. What's your opinion on why they two days later pu pooped out the final e i r? Why they, I think they already had it. and they were just placating us listening to our thing cuz that's what they have to do. Public comment. Okay. Say, say whatever. You gotta say, Uhhuh , thank you for that. Bye. And they were, had it done. , we were quite disappointed about that. Yeah. That they like, oh geez. It took the wind.
It was like someone, , had mentioned it was a punch in the gut to all the people who live around the mine. All 2000 or more. Yeah. Who live around here. And that's where we're entering into this twilight zone of, wait a minute, there are 84 impacts and not just little things. We've got asbestos can fly through the air and you're gonna breathe it. It's gonna fly everywhere. There's sica dust in there, there's exhaust emissions of thousands of tunnel traffic.
There's traffic, there's pollution, there's explosives, there's vibration, there's, it's like a calamity. It's like you're reading down the laundry list of the worst possible cal. And what could happen to your neighborhood and, and then add to that. Oh, but we're gonna start by sucking all the water out of your entire area. Yeah. , 4 million gallons a day for Lord only knows what'll do to your aquifer for everybody in this area.
Where in California, which by the way, in case you didn't know, is in a perpetual drought, all right. Have been for years, right? Yes. So that's one of the things I said. and there's all these facts. There was a CICan mine up in North San Juan that dried one that dried up lots of wells. While here are these facts and then the granddaddy of all fact gravity, you can't tell gravity not to draw down the well water in your well separate when. They all get sucked dry. Oh yeah. Right.
Exactly. So gravity is, I see what you're saying. The gravity. It's like there's a giant pool of water underwater, underground. Yeah. And they're gonna be sucking out of it like a bunch of assholes. Yes. Right. With bad straws, . Yeah. Plastic straws. No, very pla. Long plastic straws. Plastic straws like that have murdered at least 16 turtles. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, we it from all.
Normal perspective, we are in this weird spot where the county seems to be totally disregarding as if they have a whole different agenda that's hidden to the public that they're working on. Many people say, oh, they're just getting paid off. That's nothing that we can prove. . You look at those people you say, I don't think they're getting paid. Plus Rise Gold has no money. They've got so little money, right?
They've had to report because they have a publicly traded stock that's in the pennies and they have to report what their holdings are and they have less than a million bucks or something. So what's your opinion on why they would do this? sometimes it escapes me completely why they would ignore the public's safety in all of this. Mm-hmm. , it confounds my little p brain to think about it. Some have mentioned, they don't want to get sued by denying this. Mm-hmm.
, they don't want the rise gold company to come back and sue them. So I don't know what's gone through the minds of the county government officials. Yeah. But it's definitely. Deficient in protection for. their constituents. Mm-hmm. us. The citizens. Yeah. The community. Mm-hmm. , we, you're failing big time. All right. Listen, supervisors, you got one job, . You know what I mean? Defend the county. Yeah. Provide some services.
But virtually every mine site, and we may have said this before in the area is still contaminated. . Exactly. Then they are even the one that from 1950s, 1970s, 1920s a hundred years ago, somewhere, a hundred years ago, somewhere a hundred years ago, 1920, this Idaho, where mine was 70 years ago, was the last time it was open. Okay. And it's still contaminated. And they still, and they're shirking that, oh yeah, we'll clean that up. That he would clean they up late or Right. Yeah, no problem.
It's not causing any harm. No. Don't worry about it. But don't fish here. No problem. Whatever you do. And if you stick your feet in the water, they'll melt off. That's right. . So don't touch the water with any part of your body. Mm-hmm. . All right. Or anything, plastic or flammable. Okay. It doesn't say all of that, but it does say don't get in the water. Definitely says that. And it does also say this is a active cleanup site and a lost lake has all those signs around there.
So Wolf Creek has those signs over by that one where they have the big sink hole. We went over that in part one. Yeah. So the theories are, number one, they're getting paid off, which we think is highly. Because it's would be so easy to figure that out, Yeah. It's unlikely in two. I don't think so. Theory number two is that they want to put the onus on the community to sue the company.
And which also by the way could be tied to this is the theory that I believe could be tied to, they don't want to go bankrupt in the county, and if they get sued by Rise School, they might have to fight it and it might be a big castle. That's my thought. Or three alien. Right. Aliens. Aliens. Rice School is actually operated by aliens. Okay. Green. Maybe they might, gray guys, big guys, large stone. They, something like that. They got appendages. Mm-hmm. . The little ones. Yeah.
. So anyway, three aliens there's no other theories, right? Yeah, I, it reminds me of, of a court case I was a juror on where we all decided at the end, no, that's it. We're gonna vote this way. And we get out there and one of the ladies says can't we give her. A little bit of something, we're gonna deny her claim, but can't we just give her something? No, it's either you deny or not.
And I think they're trying to do this where Rago has put in a lot of millions in all of these, this effort to propose and make the report and they've paid all this stuff. So I think the county doesn't want to just. shove it off the edge and go, no, they're doing rise gold to favor. So they're doing rise a bit of a That's the fourth , . Yeah. That saying you've invested all this time and money in this and we can't just, yeah. We can't just throw you under the bus.
Which in weirdly ironic way, they're throwing us under the bus by doing that. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, exactly. But they, they, they still have. Yay or nay on it, don't they? Then, yes, there will be one more meeting at the county, which is the one I would so love to see. This is the one we need to get thousand people share. All of you listening, any is that have. I am, we really need access to this information. We need your whole body to come to this meeting on whenever it is. We'll let you know.
Everybody, your dogs, your cats. What? Whoever you can bring, everybody. Your ghosts, your ghosts, ghosts. Bring your pet porcupine. Yeah, if you can. Everybody. Tigers. Do you? Mm-hmm. , have you gotten any mannequins, dye stuff? Bring, bring that stuff. That dog. You're talking flow up dolls, blow up Anything that looks remotely like. A bipedal human because that is the time when we need to impress upon the board of supervisors that the entire county is against this.
Yeah. And if you vote for it, there's going to be some repercussions. I know there's one guy that wrote a thing in the Union article recently that said, if you vote for this, our priority will be shifted to removing all of you from. . Which for sure that'll be my game. Yeah. In case any of the supervisors actually listen to this, you'll never get elected ever again to anything even in Yeah. Iceland. Yeah. I will travel Iceland and fucking prevent you from becoming the mayor of KU Bug.
Okay, but what about followed bar? I'll travel the small box foul bar. By by plane, . All right. So, okay. So we need people to that meeting. Let's go on. So we need that people at that meeting, cuz that's when really it's gonna get real, as real as it can ever get. Right before that though, I must say there's a point. Soon when the planning department will either certify or reject the final E i r. That was what our meeting presentation was. Oh, so they haven't actually done that yet.
They haven't certified and said, Okay, we will go with this Uhhuh , and then with They do certify. Then they give a recommendation to the planning, to the board of supervisors. Yep. They say, we've certified it and we recommend blah. but after that, then the board goes, okay, we'll we're gonna have our big, whatever powwow, big bonanza, powwow, the Nevada County supervisors on, we're gonna decide that we were gonna do this or not. Can we go vote it and we'll get a vote?
Yes and no. And that's when we wound up saying no. But we would like, Planning commission now they say, no, no, no, you can't have it. Wow. If you say it like that, they're definitely gonna vote for it. . No. They're gonna be like, get that guy outta here and let's have a gold medal. Okay, All right. All right. Let's call. Let's call Christie. . Let's get her. Well, Hey, stranger Christie of the Hubbard ness. Is this you? All right.
So Christie, we just were, Tony was catching me up and hopefully anyway, to, Tony was just catching me up on kind of what's happened. and where we're at. And you and I had spoken I know that they have to certify the F E I R, The fn, environmental impact report, mm-hmm. , and then there's like a big meeting, and then there'll be a vote. , actually if there's a couple more steps from that, but, okay.
Okay. Okay. And then so I, we just were wondering first what's your opinion on why did they say, Hey, go ahead. This is the final environmental impact report. Why would the county supervisors do that? , I can't answer that definitively. What's true is that we in the community think that the final impact in environmental impact report is a, a big disappointment.
There, there are major flaws that were in the draft, e i r, that they persisted and continued with in the final e i r and why they chose to push it to final is one of the great mysteries. So I don't, I don't have a definitive answer on that. That's very diplomatic. She's a good diploma. I think we should, you know what? County supervisor, yeah, it's right. Christie, when you're ready to run, we got your two campaign managers.
I think the, I think she's saying this is like the pyramids, one of those great mysteries. We don't know who built those stuff. Right. Yeah. No, anything that I can say would be speculation and I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna re repeat that again, that's just speculation, but career in politics. There we go. I love it for politics, right? Mm-hmm. , there's, there's, there's what the community wants, and then there's politics, right? Those are two different things.
So at any rate, but no. What's true is that we know that Rise has been short on money, and there's probably some pressure to get this thing resolved. That's a, that's a speculation. We also, we don't know , where the county is at on this, but what we do, Is that there are major flaws in mm-hmm. in the final e i r, that really there's, there's plenty of things that really are not compliant with Squa. And, and those are gonna be legally challengable.
The first ask of the county from this community is to simply not certify this, the e i r. That's because Certify is different than approving. Certify simply means it's complete and adequate. Okay. Right, right. And we don't believe that it's complete or adequate. No, no. Right. At least three of us we're, and that's really what the step number one is to ask the planning. Simply to not certify this thing. Do we have an opportunity to do that and when is that? Absolutely.
Absolutely. So, Even though this is final, the community has the right and the ability to make comments. All the way up until that, up until that first public meeting, which we're all, wait, we're all waiting for it, they said, not before February the first. Uhhuh . Right. But there's going to be the. First public meeting is on the final e i r itself.
And the community can comment all the way up to that , and those comments will be effectively taken into account in those decisions, even though we're not trying to revise the e i r anymore. It's really, , it's a question of how they vote at this mo at this point in time. How, when people comment Yeah. Where can people comment? If people wanna send comments to the planning commission about the e i r, they can send send their letter to Idaho like I D A H O. Mm-hmm.
, m M E I r at theo Nevada ca us. I d a h o dot m m e i r. At co.nevada.ca us. Okay, cool. All right, got it. That's good. Very good. Excellent. And if you wanna know what to say in that comment, you could look at the Mind Watch dot org, mc.org website, mind watch mc.org. You'll, you'll get all kinds of stuff there and there are facts that you can copy over and comment on, right? The biggest message that we hope everybody will, deliver to the supervisors is really just saying no. Right?
If the time has come to tell Mitch s supervisors to just say no to this assault on our community just say no to this project. It's really an unprecedented assault on our community. It this project includes significant and unavoidable environmental impacts, and the environmental report really didn't stand up. Tell 'em that a few jobs and uncertain tax revenues just aren't worth the risk. No. Not worth the risk.
Yeah, and the dangers to our community are not worth the risk and the goal is not worth the risk. The goal that's going to go to. Okay. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Or at least the profits will go. Yeah, all those investors, the money does not come to us. , some money will, but not nearly as much as Rise would like to have you believe. Then as a resident, as I said the other day in my comment to the planning commission, nothing will be to my benefit whatsoever for this. Boy, that's the truth.
Zero. And not only that, it will be the complete opposite. Right. I will just wreak havoc from it. Yeah. You're gonna be paddling A ship boat, down shit creek, you know what I mean? The shit town. All right. And Tony, I loved what you said in front of the planning commissioners the other day because you, you said, you were talking about all the well owners in the area and you said you. None of us asked for this. Mm-hmm. to happen to our homes, . Right?
Yeah. None of us want to be thinking about having a home that might not have water. How in the world do you settle a house with no water? Yeah. Or how do you, how do you even think about, having to run through Rice Gold to figure out how to get an N I D hookup? Yeah. How does that work? Yeah, exactly. Right, right. Yeah. And we didn't, we didn't all get together on a neighborhood meeting and say, you know what would be good ideas? Look at the gold mine open, and that would be so much fun.
No, I, I didn't have that meeting, did you? No, it wasn't, I wasn't there either. It was, it's weird at three. Once we're done and we actually get this, they voted down. Mm-hmm. , then, then let's go take. Let's go back to our general plan , let's go put some real protections in because this community doesn't need this. I just can't how many thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of, of people's hours have been spent fighting this thing.
Yeah. And, and I get that a business gets to apply to do business, but boy has it created. . Such a firestorm. Mm-hmm. and an unnecessary waste of time for the, for the county. For, yeah. The supervisors. For the commissioners, yeah. For the staff. And for the community. For sure. I mean though it has brought us together, which is, that's good. That one good thing is that now I know you too.
So it has brought us together in a way, and I think that that's like the only good thing that has come out of us. Yeah. The whole deal. Yeah. Is that now there's kind of a united front. That kind of ping of the land, and it's like it's taking an environmental stand that I, I think a lot of people have taken stand Well, Well, there is precedent for that.
I There are other counties who have said, have set boundaries and no, no mining within x distance of, residential stuff so, it's, it, it's real and we should think about that, but let's do one. In terms of opportunities to engage with the county on this? , there are public opportunities. The board and the planning commissions both meet every two weeks and there's always opportunity for public comments, so anybody can go in and speak live. Okay. And this is an sending letters of course. Mm-hmm.
. But there is going to be a public hearing. The specific to all your final comments , on the environmental impact report. And they're also going to be, considering things about project entitlements, things like, oh, that zoning change that they need to do to add mineral extraction to, that Brunswick site and things like that. , so the first public hearing will be about the F E I R and the project entitlements, and we are waiting to hear on when that will happen.
They said no sooner than February. We still haven't heard, and who knows, they may only give us a couple of weeks notice. We really encourage everybody to just stay tuned, still listen, read the newsletters, follow social media. Just stay tuned because we might not have a lot of notice on that. Mm-hmm. . After that, then the planning commissioner will go into their little chambers and make a recommendation about whether or not they're gonna certify.
Assuming that it moves forward, then there would be yet one more public hearing with the board of supervisor. After they have certified it or not a after that. Yeah. And, and then again, , they won't be making the decision that day. They'll go back to their little heidi holes and they'll make their decisions. Mm-hmm. . Okay. So that's kinda how the flow works. . All right, cool. That's great, Christie. Thank you so much for the update. I really appreciate it.
You, you're, you're more than welcome and thanks for what you're doing there. We'll be in touch soon. Okay. Bye-Bye Kate Child. Bye. . uh, One of the added gifts of irritation continuing to send his press releases. Oh, really? I haven't got, oh man. I want to get one of those and that says I think the last one said the community overwhelmingly supports this now and that the and that because the county has submitted the final e I r. That means they're in favor of it as well, wow.
So when did they put that up? December 16th. Right after the E F E I R was designated as complete and Rascal reports favorable final e i r for Idaho, Maryland Mine Project. Wow. Final independent report by Nevada County confirms no significant air, biological water, vibration, or noise impacts from the project. Yeah. What the big, no significant hearings for a pupil of view. They're just trying to get more money. Yeah. Obviously God, what world down and dirty in what world would that be?
Ugh. True. No. World mining is. Full of impacts that are significant. Whoa. A strong local support. The majority of residents support the mind reopening as well as associated economic development and well paying jobs. Yes. No, we don't. Yes. No, we don't. That is such, for the record there's no local support that we have seen. The vast majority of residents, the entire majority of residents do not support the remind reopening as. Or any of the economic development and well paying jobs.
Yeah. That is such bullshit. Mm-hmm. jobs that are, are super skilled that they could not even possibly hire somebody from this area if they needed a job. Yeah. They would have to bring them in. Yeah. They're not getting that job. Yeah. There's a thing I just heard called fly in, fly Out employees, and this would be full of that. Fly in, fly out, and where do they live? They will be taking over housing. That should be going to the local people here.
Yeah. Wow. If that were to happen, it's just down and dastardly and I'm not into it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Neither should you be. So people like, I, I really wanna stress that this is a really good opportunity for people to actually get involved with something no matter where you live. I just, Want to make sure people stand up for this, even if it's just because quite a few people will say, oh, I don't wanna get involved. I don't want the mine.
But I don't, don't, don't ask me to do anything. Well, This is gonna be very easy. You're just gonna show up at the rude center when that meeting comes in. You're gonna say no, or absolutely the other people that don't wanna get involved writing a bunch of stuff. To the comment, all they could put, no, I don't want this in my community. Mm-hmm. , and submit that as a comment.
You don't have to be a scholar to write, or have read the 10,000 pages of the e i r to find out what you need to say about this. You just say, I am a community resident that does not want this. Because it will change the way of life here. Exactly. That's exactly right. We do. And if you're, if and if you're elsewhere, if you're out there on internet, and you really care about this. Go to the show notes.
There's gonna be links to petitions where you can sign that you are against this kind of action. You can make comments from wherever you are because . This is our planet and this is our land collectively. So if you want to make a difference, if you want to actually speak out against this, if you want to become a part of the movement to stop the Idaho, Maryland Mind, see the show notes, go to mind, watch nc.org g and get involved. I highly encourage you to do that.
It's you taking a stand for the planet and it's a really great way to feel good about yourself. Am I right Tony? I believe so, yes. You get, you get involved in something like this. You help save people's wells, save people's homes, you know what I mean? The air quality. Save people's health. . Frankly, we would have to move if that thing got approved. For sure. There's no way we can live a mile. And breathe the same air. You know what? I'm meant to tell you something.
I got some real good news for you, Tony is, what is it? If you have to move out? We have some room in our garage. Okay. It's not heated or cooled or anything like that, and there's some boxes in there, but. I think you could live in there. The car you can use, we can set out a little porta potty or something outside for you. We have our little travel trailer. Can I put it right in your yard over here? Yep, sure. Oh wow. That's a real deal. How's that? Okay. All right. Shit man.
I just actually signed up. Move in then you right. And we're going pull it. Right. And if you could get a, a link into your septic system, that'd be great. Oh wow. Okay. Good. Honey, we have a problem. Sorry. Tony's staying. You moved in? All . Okay. All right. TB continued. Get those minors, man. All right. All right. Goodness. Much love. That brings us to the end of this episode of Lunacy. Thank you so much for listening. Special thanks to my good friend and comedic cohort, Tony Laia.
May we stop this mine in its tracks for good and forever. If you want to get involved, please visit mind. Watch nc.org. That's mind watch, N as in Nancy, C in cow. DO org. Thank you again so much for listening. If you want to please rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcast. Tell your friends about it. Subscribe, download episodes, try and keep this thing going. Okay, K Luna. He was created by. And is written by myself and also edited by my good friend Kimberly Bridges.
Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. Much love.