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Mine cleanup bill sponsored by New Mexico Senator passes House, expected to become law
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A bill to make cleaning up abandoned hard rock mines easier is expected to become law after the House of Representatives passed it Tuesday.
The bipartisan Good Samaritan bill, sponsored by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., would reduce the liability for nonprofits or other groups cleaning up abandoned hard rock mines. The bill would pilot a new permitting process with 15 abandoned mine sites, allowing entities who don鈥檛 own the abandoned mine to clean up the site without being responsible for cleaning up all of the pollution at a site.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been doing abandoned mine cleanups for 10 years now. It鈥檚 just that we鈥檝e kind of been doing them with one hand tied behind our backs,鈥� said Corey Fisher, public lands policy director for nonprofit Trout Unlimited.
The bill passed the Senate in July and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden. It has taken more than 20 years to reach a president鈥檚 desk.
鈥淚 am grateful for President Biden鈥檚 support of the bill, and his signature will allow Good Samaritans to get to work,鈥� Heinrich said in a statement.
Montana Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, first proposed a version of the Good Samaritan bill in 1999. He hoped Montana could clean up a mine site from the 1800s that contaminated Corbin Creek, which is still on Montana鈥檚 list of impaired waters, bill cosponsor Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said during debate on the House floor Tuesday.
鈥淎cross these multiple decades of debate, abandoned hard rock mines have continued to send mercury, arsenic, lead and other toxic materials into our rivers,鈥� Lee said.
There was one voice of dissent on the debate floor. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was concerned the bill could allow corporations to seek superfund exemptions from the Environmental Protection Agency, especially under the incoming Donald Trump administration.
鈥淚 fear that Congress is opening up a Pandora鈥檚 box,鈥� Pallone said.
Abandoned mines in NM
Mines are divided into two categories: coal and everything else. Those that are everything else are called hard rock mines. In New Mexico, that category includes silver, gold, lead, manganese, iron and uranium mines.
Leftover mining materials can pose health issues, while ground that becomes unstable after mining is a safety issue.
New Mexico has approximately 26,000 known abandoned mine features, but it鈥檚 difficult to know exactly how many abandoned mines are out there, according to Lloyd Moiola, Environmental Manager for the state鈥檚 Abandoned Mine Land program.
Funding for the Abandoned Mine Land program primarily comes from a law that taxes coal production, said Program Manager Mike Tompson, so the money has to be spent first on reclaiming and safeguarding coal mines. Safeguarding hard rock mines is a secondary effort, and the money can鈥檛 be used to clean up hard rock mines.
Safeguarding is the only way money is spent on the hard rock mines. It includes things that reduce the risk of someone falling into an abandoned mine, like building safety enclosures, gates and backfilling.
鈥淭he majority of the coal problems, and the majority of the funding, is on the East Coast,鈥� Tompson said. 鈥淧ennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky 鈥� they get quite a bit of money to address their coal problems, and they have many. They don鈥檛 have many hard rock problems. In the West 鈥� California, Nevada and Arizona, Colorado 鈥� they have even more hard rock problems than we have.鈥�
The federal government provides some money to address hard rock mines, but it is not enough to accomplish environmental remediation for mines in New Mexico. Instead, the Bureau of Land Management is working on an inventory of the abandoned hard rock mine features in New Mexico.
So far, BLM has inventoried approximately 43 of the 251 mining districts in the state, Moiola said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a cyclical thing, because we can鈥檛 make the case that we need the money, because there鈥檚 no money to do the inventory to make the case,鈥� Tompson said.
The state Legislature did fund a new program to find out the number of abandoned uranium mines that are not under federal jurisdiction.
Heinrich also championed a provision in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to establish an abandoned hard rock mine reclamation program in the Department of the Interior.
鈥淐ongress is not fully funding it right now, so we鈥檙e hoping, if that becomes fully funded, we should receive quite a bit of money in New Mexico to do hard rock reclamation, which could include environmental remediation,鈥� Moiola said.
The EPA might not choose a New Mexico site for the Good Samaritan bill鈥檚 pilot program, but the bill could create momentum for more abandoned mine cleanup.
Trout Unlimited plans to pitch sites for the pilot program.
鈥淗opefully, we show success and build enthusiasm around cleaning up abandoned mines,鈥� Fisher said. 鈥淎nd show that it鈥檚 not just something that鈥檚 good for the environment and helping create healthier communities, but it鈥檚 really a job generator in rural communities.鈥�
