Red River

GEI Chadwick Ecological Division was retained by Molycorp, Inc. to provide detailed ecological support for important legal and regulatory issues.

Citizen lawsuit claiming damage to Red River: Our scientists reviewed historic biological data on the river (state, federal and private), conducted field sampling of fish, benthic invertebrates and habitat, and developed a technical report summarizing observed trends, both current and historic, as related to the mine. We discovered that the river was severely “damaged” by natural sources upstream of the mine. The pattern of impaired biology pre-dated significant mine activities. Our findings were produced in a technical report two months later and the lawsuit was dismissed before trial.

Stream is listed by the state as “impaired” on the 303(d) list for acute and chronic aluminum exceedences.