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Don't Weaken Mining Bill:
It's time for Congress to update 1872 mining law
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Register-Guard
If federal lawmakers are looking for reasons to reform the 1872 General Mining Act, they need look no further than the Champion and Black Butte mines south of Cottage Grove. Or the Formosa mine in Douglas County. Or any of the other polluted mine sites that pock and poison Oregon's back country.
As The Register-Guard's Diane Dietz reported Sunday, the 135-year-old law has left a legacy of severely polluted mine sites across the West. The cleanup efforts will take decades and cost billions of dollars, and taxpayers could end up carrying most of the load.
If Congress does not approve meaningful reform, there will certainly be more messes like the Champion gold mine, where tailings and waste rock from seven decades of mining pollute creeks with toxic, fish-killing metals—and where taxpayers have funded a cleanup that so far has cost $1.7 million.
Or like the Black Butte mine, where mining operations left piles of mercury-laden waste rock that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently spent a half million dollars attempting to bury.
Then there's the Formosa mine, which recently was added to the national Superfund list. The abandoned mine spews 5 million gallons of acid water each year, and so far has killed at least 18 miles of salmon-rearing stream at the headwaters of an Umpqua River Tributary. The cleanup will cost tens of millions of dollars and the money is likely to come out of the pockets of taxpayers.
On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee is expected to take up legislation sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., that proposes a comprehensive and thoughtful update of the federal mining law. It would impose for the first time royalties for all mining operations comparable to those imposed on coal, oil, timber and natural gas producers. Most of the proceeds from the proposed 8 percent royalty would go to cleaning up abandoned mines such as Champion, Black Butte and Formosa.
The bill would close environmentally sensitive areas such as wildernesses and roadless areas to mining, and it would authorize federal officials for the first time to reject mining applications in favor of other land uses, including conservation and recreation. Rahall's bill would also impose new environmental restrictions, and would require companies to fully restore mining sites after operations shut down.
After years of beating back efforts to reform federal mining law, the mining industry finally acknowledges the need for an update. However, it's pushing hard to reduce the proposed 8 percent royalty rate and to block any new environmental restrictions, which industry officials unconvincingly argue would make new operations untenable. The industry also wants to maintain mining's unwarranted priority over other uses on public lands.
Congress should hold steady and approve Rahall's bill without major changes. With the number of claims rapidly rising across the West, it's time to bring mining into the 21st century.
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