New Mexico Senator Heinrich Calls for Increased Federal Funding to Clean Up Hard Rock Mining Sites

Up to $3 billion in federal funds could be available for a program that would see the cleanup of hard rock mining sites in states of the West.

There are currently up to 140,000 abandoned hard rock mines, with perhaps as many as 22,500 of those mines posing an environmental hazard.

New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich is calling for a program that will clean up those sites, which can be found on tribal lands, as well as lands owned by the federal government and the states.

Heinrich, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has included cleanup funding in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation currently being reviewed in both the Senate and House.

If ultimately approved, Heinrich’s legislation would see up to $1.5 billion targeting cleanup projects conducted by the federal government, with the second $1.5 billion going to the states and tribal governments for that same purpose.

In hearings designed to explore and update the process of future mining projects securing the approval of the U.S. Forest Service, Heinrich remarked: “As we consider these reforms—royalties, reclamation fees, claim fees—we also need to include the voices of the communities that live daily with the consequences of mine pollution.”

Heinrich is additionally participating in hearings exploring whether the nation’s hard rock laws, first approved by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, should be updated.

Hard rock mining entails the excavation of such metals as ore containing gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency at least 40% of all watersheds in the West have been contaminated by pollution from hard rock mines.

The General Accounting Office has additionally estimated that there may actually be as many as 390,000 hard rock mines on federal lands that have yet to be documented.

Between 2008 and 2017 it is estimated that various federal agencies, including the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management, spent around $287 million annual cleaning up the remains of the known mines.

Experts have noted that besides the threat that such mines pose to the environment, they also present physical dangers for explorers due to their potential of collapsing without warning.

​By Garry Boulard

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