A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that in approving the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine the Bureau of Land Management had failed to adequately assess environmental harms, including harms to vital habitat for the imperiled sage grouse.
The ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho determined that the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy Management Act when it approved the phosphate mine without first analyzing and restricting, mitigating or eliminating impacts to greater sage grouse such as harms to habitat and population connectivity.