A move to facilitate mine cleanup operations in the U.S., while creating a specific office dedicated to that effort within the Environmental Protection Agency, is working its way through Congress.
Arguing that a poor stewardship of mine cleanup efforts is detrimental to the “health and safety of those living in rural Arizona, particularly on the Navajo Nation,” Arizona Republican Representative Eli Crane is pushing for passage of the Legacy Mine Cleanup Act of 2025, which will also increase Congressional oversight of those efforts.
As proposed, the legislation is specifically designed to codify the Office of Mountains, Deserts, and Plains within the EPA, and in the process enhance cleanup coordination among Federal, State, and Tribal authorities.
According to the Government Accountability Office there are around 140,000 abandoned hard rock mines in the U.S., the vast majority of which are located in the West. Upwards of 500 of those mines are thought to be found on Navajo Nation grounds.
The GAO report additionally asserts that such former mines “may pose physical safety hazards -danger of injury or death,” with others containing environmental hazards, including “risks to human health or wildlife from long-term exposure to harmful substances.”
Companion legislation to Crane’s bill has now been introduced in the Senate by Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly and Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis.
Chances for passage of the legislation in both chambers are thought to be good.
June 13, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
