If not the MOST important issue, therefore it should be at or near the top of the list of concerns for LAC/Nevada Lithium to address and the need is to go on the counter offensive with that effort.  I suspect that as this heats up and gets more and more public attention then it will center more and more about the water quality issue.

Below are some pertinent comments from a segment in opposition to Thacker Pass:

“The water is the most important because that’s what we pray to. When we have our ceremonial, we pray to that. And that’s very important to us. Yeah, and our reservation is not very far from here. You know, we are afraid of the air quality, and we got a lot of sickness on the reservation. 

“We had one (a mercury mine) near us, right above our reservation, the Cordero Mine, and we got a lot of people that are sick, are sick already. And we don’t want that. We don’t want that.

“Our dad worked there (at the Cordero mercury mine). My sister’s husband worked there. Three of my sisters in-law husbands worked there. They all got cancer, and one is still surviving. He’s in elderly nursing home here in Winnemucca.”

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That is the sort of story that will pull at the heartstrings of many people and tip them against Thacker Pass.  You can expect in the future for articles written in various publications to drag out those who have been injured and sickened by other types of mining endeavors and to be presented by expose oriented media in  suggestion that the same thing will occur secondarily to the proposed lithium mine and lithium clay processing at Thacker Pass. That will be a prime purpose of those journalistic endeavors, to link in the mind of the reader adverse effects of mining at other mining sites with those that would occur in the future at Thacker Pass, regardless of any differentiating factors between the proposed facility at Thacker Pass and those at other mining sites elsewhere. 

It is imperative for LAC and Lithium Nevada to present concrete presentations to the contrary and show why those adverse events will not occur with their Thacker Pass proposal, if in fact such occurence has been already addressed and preventive measures included in the development plan.

Alexi Zawadzki, CEO of Lithium Nevada, addressed many of these concerns in his opinion piece of 28 April 2021 in the Sierra Nevada Ally  

Lithium Nevada Corp’s CEO explains the benefits of the Thacker Pass Lithium Project

and stated his own reply to many of the charges that those opposed to Thacker Pass have levied:

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm put it bluntly in a recent news interview (PBS Newshour, April 1, 2021):

“We are going to manufacture the means to our energy security in this country, to our national security in this country…Even the guts to the batteries that are in the electric vehicles, they’ve got critical materials in them that we have in this country, but we are allowing other countries to corner the market on those materials.” 

The Thacker Pass project in Nevada is uniquely positioned to play a key role in this American-made lithium supply chain solution critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Thacker Pass has the potential to increase U.S. lithium supply over 10-fold to meet most, if not all, expected domestic demand.

Nevada could become a world leader in specialty lithium chemicals production, a champion in the fight to reduce America’s carbon footprint and a leader in the critical industries that produce and deploy clean technologies. Thacker Pass stands to put hundreds of jobless Nevadans back to work and strengthen communities. 

Clearly, the development of Thacker Pass is in the Nation’s interest.

After 10 years of data collection, environmental studies, geologic exploration, technological innovation, community engagement, and an exhaustive permitting process with state and federal authorities, Thacker Pass is projected to commence construction later this year after essential permits are received.    

We have listened carefully to the community and are taking additional steps to be good neighbors and a part of Humboldt County for many decades to come.

We will provide as many as 300 family-supporting jobs, creating opportunities for rural Humboldt County youth to stay and thrive in the communities where their parents and grandparents established deep roots. 

We are committed to working with local partners to equip residents with the right skills to take advantage of job opportunities. 

We will contribute taxes and our local procurement policies will bring additional economic benefits to the surrounding communities. 

We have listened carefully to the community and are taking additional steps to be good neighbors and a part of Humboldt County for many decades to come.

We will build away from sensitive species, as purposefully designed and approved in our final Environmental Impact Statement.

We are avoiding mining in the Montana Mountains to protect its sagebrush habitat and important cultural areas, despite false claims that we are “blowing up mountains”. 

The plant has been designed to use waste heat to generate carbon-free power for our operation. 

We will repeatedly recirculate the water used in processing our ore to minimize our water needs. 

Thacker Pass has committed to using the best available technology to limit air emissions. 

The mined pit will be backfilled with sand and rock that does not contain valuable lithium metal and will be revegetated as soon as possible, instead of waiting to the end of the mine life to begin reclamation.   

We will always strive to earn people’s trust and support through our actions as a responsible operator and charitable member of the community.  

After a decade of talking, meeting, and planning, we are now on the cusp of construction. It is only to be expected that fellow Nevadans would want more information about our path forward. We are planning a range of upcoming engagement opportunities with the communities of Northern Nevada. "

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Some particular points of interest were his statements: 

We have listened carefully to the community and are taking additional steps to be good neighbors and a part of Humboldt County for many decades to come.

We will repeatedly recirculate the water used in processing our ore to minimize our water needs. 

Thacker Pass has committed to using the best available technology to limit air emissions. 

We will always strive to earn people’s trust and support through our actions as a responsible operator and charitable member of the community.  

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So, at least in my own opinion, if LAC and Nevada Lithium can live up to that last statement by Alexi Zawadzki and prove as much to all of those who are now opposed to the Thacker Pass project then the battle tips in favor of LAC and Nevada Lithium.  Just to repeat that last statement of  Alexi Zawadzki, for added emphasis:

"We will always strive to earn people’s trust and support through our actions as a responsible operator and charitable member of the community."