(from TU press release Feb 3, 2022)
A bipartisan bill to help address the problem of pollution leaking from abandoned hard rock mines was introduced in the U.S Senate on Feb 3rd. Colorado Senator Bennet joined the Lead Bill Sponsors- Senator Heinrich from New Mexico and Senator Risch from Idaho- and five other senators from western states as sponsors.
“Abandoned mines represent the least addressed and greatest threat to water quality in the nation,” said Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “There is no constituency for abandoned mines and orange water, and we’re excited for Congress to take bipartisan action that will allow organizations such as TU to help protect our communities and clean our rivers and streams. We thank Senators Risch and Heinrich for their years of attention to this pervasive problem.”
The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2022 would help address an estimated 500,000 abandoned mines (mines with no one responsible for clean-up) in the American West, 33,000 of which are known to be causing environmental damage. More than 110,000 miles of streams are listed as impaired for heavy metals and/or acidity, and abandoned mines are a major source of these impairments due to acid-mine drainage with toxic metals, such as mercury, lead and arsenic. In Colorado, there are an estimated 23,000 abandoned mines and pollution from many of these sites impact some of our most famous fisheries, like the Rio Grande and Animas Rivers, as well as municipal water supplies.
The Good Samaritan cleanup bill would establish a pilot program for a permitting process administered by the EPA that would enable qualified nonprofit groups and other third parties to tackle cleanups of abandoned mine sites, in part by providing targeted, limited liability protection for so-called “Good Samaritan” groups who undertake projects designed to clean up water pollution from leaking mines. State and federal governments have spent billions cleaning up leaking abandoned mines where current law allows, but there is much more work to do.
Read more at: https://www.tu.org/press-releases/trout-unlimited-praises-legislation-to-facilitate-abandoned-mine-cleanups/