Mines may have to pay for their messes

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The EPA took a first step last Friday toward holding mining companies financially accountable for their toxic legacies.

Following a federal court mandate in February, the EPA filed a document saying hardrock mining companies, which dig up materials such as uranium and gold, will be among the first to face federal regulations aimed at making companies set aside money to pay for cleanup. Cleanups have cost taxpayers billions of dollars after companies declared bankruptcy.

‘The taxpayer should not be left holding the bag for that cost of cleaning up the mess,’ said Brian Shield, executive director of the New Mexico-based conservation group Amigos Bravos. ‘We have hundreds if not thousands of abandoned mines in New Mexico that need to be cleaned up.... We don’t even know who owns those mines in some cases.’

Water contamination and other environmental hazards can endure for many years after a mine closes.

‘In a lot of cases, you can’t clean it up,’ said Glenn C. Miller, co-founder of the Nevada-based environmental justice group Great Basin Resource Watch. Instead, companies can pay for water treatment to prevent chemicals from getting into drinking water. Nationwide, efforts to ‘clean up’ old mines have cost billions of dollars.

Although the EPA may be moving towards taking companies to task, regulations may still be a long way down the road.

‘It’s not clear what’s going to happen next,’ said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice, the group that brought EPA to court in February. ‘We still need to find out if they’re going to issue the regulations.’

Besides looking into hardrock mines, the federal agency will investigate hazardous waste generators, metal finishers, wood treatment facilities and other industries, according to a statement on their website.

-- Amy Littlefield