For nearly 30 years, government agencies have worked to clean up abandoned coal mines with coal industry funds. For non-coal minerals – like gold and copper– no similar cleanup program exists. No industry funds are collected, and no federal regulations keep the universe of abandoned hardrock mining sites from growing. Today there’s over half a million sites, and many, like Brewer’s Gold in South Carolina or Colorado’s Summitville have made it to the Superfund priority list.

The legislative solutions to this problem offered on behalf of the Bush Administration in the House and Senate (H.R. 5404 and S. 2780) and by Colorado Senators Salazar and Allard (S. 1848) create no new regulations and no new funding, but instead offer dangerous waivers from the Clean Water Act, Superfund, and – in the case of S. 1848 – exemptions from six other major environmental laws, state laws and local ordnances.

S. 1848, H.R. 5404 and its Senate companion bill S. 2780, would allow EPA and the states to sweep aside all provisions of the Clean Water Act, in addition to altering existing Superfund liabilities. All three bills allow mining companies to secure “Good Samaritan” permits in lieu of Clean Water Act permits. These are not issued under the Clean Water Act, so all Clean Water Act programs such as wetlands protections, allowing for citizens’ suits, and anti-degradation, may also be waived. S. 1848 also allows companies engaged in the clean up to remine a site, potentially exacerbating the problem, if ore is discovered during the clean up. While S. 2780 and H.R. 5404 disallow remining, these bills do permit reprocessing which can also be harmful.

Abandoned hardrock mines create some of the worst environmental catastrophes and can completely destroy rivers, lakes and streams. It is absolutely necessary for Congress to take action to address the problem of cleaning up abandoned mine sites, but waiving the laws which are designed to protect human health and the environmental quality of the waters we rely on is not the answer.

TAKE ACTION:

Please call your Senators and ask them to oppose S. 2780 and S. 1848 and call your Member of the House of Representatives and ask her or him to oppose H.R. 5404. Remind them that the problem of abandoned mines arises because mining regulations are too weak. Further weakening environmental protections will only lead to more problems and more environmental catastrophes like the Summitville mine. Voice opposition to sweeping waivers for mine clean ups like those found in S. 1848, S. 2780 and H.R. 5404.

For more information on the issue of abandoned hardrock mines and these legislative proposals before Congress contact Velma Smith at the National Environmental Trust at Vsmith@net.org or (202) 887-8877 and National Environmental Trust on the web.