A bill co-sponsored by New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich will make it easier for various state agencies as well as local governments to clean up and improve the water quality in and adjacent to abandoned hardrock mines.
Senate Bill 2781 would establish a new pilot program under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency, offering limited liability protections for any state or local agency taking on hardrock mine cleanups.
As introduced by Heinrich and a host of other Western senators, the legislation defines hard rock mine residue as “any tailings, heap leach piles, dump leach piles, waste rock,” or other materials resulting from the mine extraction process.
There are thought to be around 33,000 such abandoned mines in the country. Those mines have produced everything from gold and silver to copper and uranium but have also been responsible for toxic by-products contaminating adjacent water bodies and ground water.
As written, the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act will also make it possible for nonprofit groups to spearhead cleanup efforts.
A good Samaritan is one “willing to help, not because of what they could gain, but because they know it’s right,” remarked Tom Cors, senior director for legislative affairs with the Nature Conservancy.
In endorsing the Heinrich bill, Cors added: that the measure will make it possible for state and local governments, as well as nonprofits, to “take on responsible abandoned mine cleanups without saddling them with the same liability as the ones who caused the mess in the first place.”
Th measure has also won the backing of New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Lujan, along with Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema; and Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado.
The bill has now been sent to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for review.
By Garry Boulard
