Crown Can’t Get Accounting of Environmental Settlement It Funded

Crown Resources Corp. can’t force a conservation group to provide information on how it spent the company’s funds on environmental projects in the Okanogan Highlands in Washington state, a federal court in the state ruled.

The Okanagan Highlands Alliance’s claims in its Clean Water Act lawsuit against Crown and the company’s counterclaim are both linked to the Buckhorn Mountain Mine, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington acknowledged.

However, the group’s claim that the company violated its water pollution permit and Crown’s counterclaim for accounting information “do not share a common nucleus of operative facts,” the court ...