Guest Column
Now is the Time for Mining Reform
By Guest Writer, 3-09-10
Everyone who fishes for trout in the Frying Pan River or hunts elk on the Grand Mesa knows that Colorado has a rich fish and wildlife legacy. Yet any person who spends time in Colorado’s mountains knows that more than a century of hard-rock mining has created a different kind of legacy – one that continues polluting some of our most essential fish and wildlife habitat and has left a lasting impact on our state’s unique lands and waters.
While mining is a legitimate use of public lands, few laws are more in need of an overhaul than the 1872 General Mining Law, the most outdated natural resource law in the nation. Fortunately, promising legislation currently being considered by the U.S. Senate would implement long-overdue reform of this 137-year-old law – legislation that is benefiting from the support of Colorado’s leadership.
Both Sen. Mark Udall and Sen. Michael Bennet have said “yes” to responsible management of our shared natural resources and cosponsored Senate Bill 796, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act. They deserve the appreciation of Coloradans for their action on this important public-lands issue, but we still need their help to assure the bill’s speedy passage into the law of the land.
American landscapes managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service provide some of the most important fish and wildlife habitat and offer some of the finest hunting and angling in the country. Public lands encompass more than 50 percent of the nation’s blue-ribbon trout streams and are strongholds for trout and salmon in the western United States. More than 80 percent of crucial habitat for elk is on public lands. With the largest elk and mule deer herds of any state and trout streams that are world renowned, Colorado hosts a range of sporting opportunities that is second to none.
Yet under the 1872 Mining Law, signed into existence more than a century ago, mining trumps every other use of our public lands, including hunting and fishing. The law obliges the Secretary of the Interior to sell public land to mining companies, often foreign-owned, for as little as $2.50 per acre. These companies freely extract all the gold, copper, zinc and other valuable minerals they can from these lands without paying a penny in royalties to us, the citizens who own them. Estimates place the amount of minerals given away by the United States in royalty-free mining and patenting at more than $245 billion – and counting.
The time for change has arrived.
The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, introduced by New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, offers a common-sense approach to updating the 1872 law. The legislation would eliminate the sale of public lands to mining companies. It would empower the BLM and Forest Service to review “high value” lands for possible withdrawal from minerals development. It would establish royalties of between 2 and 5 percent on new mines located on public lands, requiring the mining industry to pay a reasonable fee to use resources owned by American citizens, just like other industries that operate on public lands. Finally, it would help reclaim the thousands of abandoned mines blanketing our lands, thereby restoring waterways and habitats that benefit Colorado’s fish, wildlife and people.
The fact that Americans depend on a strong and responsible mining industry is beyond dispute. Fortunately, Sen. Bingaman’s bill would assure a fair and positive future for hard-rock mining in America while conserving and maintaining our irreplaceable natural resources. This approach will secure important wildlife habitat and hunting areas, valuable fisheries, popular recreation sites and vital municipal water supplies for the benefit of every Coloradan.
Americans are rightfully proud of our unique public-lands legacy and want to see these iconic landscapes managed by laws that address the challenges of our modern world. Sens. Udall and Bennet deserve a big thank you from Coloradans for their dedication to conserving our outdoor heritage and improving our children’s quality of life by supporting the passage of hard-rock mining reform in Congress. Continued strong leadership from Colorado’s senators will help move this legislation one step closer to the president’s desk – resulting in a legacy of which residents of our state can be proud.
Don Gibbs is a retired engineer, avid outdoorsman and volunteer for the Federation of Fly Fishers, Eastern Rocky Mountain Council. He lives in Golden, CO. This column was submitted by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partrnership.
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As usual, the Campaign for America's Wilderness and Pew "Charitable Trusts" keep up the tax-exempt political amperage. "High value" means "anywhere not ugly." Thank goodness the American people are waking up to the foolishness of the "ruling" party.
Comment By jdj, 3-09-10I would have thought that after 130 years of giving away our public mineral resources even Dave Skinner could not have found fault with fair-minded reform of the mining law. In fact, maybe he does support reform but can’t get past his myopic distaste for anything the current Democratic administration might be associated with. Who can tell?
I come from a mining family, a mining town, and a mining culture. My grandfather, mined gold, silver, and uranium from Montana to Utah. He shook his head at the ill logic of giving away the very minerals that made him, on occasion, a rich man. Foremost among the giveaway is the ability of miners on public land to just walk away. The pollution they left behind poisons streams and landscapes for generations. Somehow, most western states and all private lands have better controls over hardrock mining than the Feds – but Skinner would rather play at petty politics than see some rare political leadership toward mining reform.
Do we need minerals? Of course but it is also one of the few truly efficient potential recycling efforts that would pay off. We reuse a very small percentage of the gold and silver mined from public land because it is artificially cheap to produce. At the same time, we need less and less of any given mineral because industry has figured out how to get by with less. The main driver of gold prices right now appears to be a right wing nut case on FOX news. As for reclamation – take a look at any local economy before and after application of Superfund cleanup and you will find that environmental remediation is good for the economy.
Some day Skinner may figure out that just because Pew is involved doesn’t make a policy some left wing conspiracy to take his guns. When he grows up, he may find that his knee jerk reactionary response against environmental progress is not only wrongheaded, it is contrary to good economics.
It's about time! In eastern Washington State many of the gold claims in our area seem to be mostly about claiming a piece of and putting a structure on it and using as a weekend cabin.
Comment By Larry Sellers, 3-09-10Mr. Skinner,
Don't see how you can consistently talk so much junk about the govt. and not see how silly it is that our slackjawed congress has allowed this law to persist.
I realize it's been amended a ton since 1872 but it's damn near the most outright bunch of b.s. that exists on paper anywhere. There are more important issues, but this law has just been out of hand for so long...it's amazing...and a great case in point of how so many in congress are too gutless to act on anything that makes them less electable.
I honestly enjoy your sharp comments most of the time even though I don't always agree, but I thought calling out this kind of scam was your forte?
Might as well give up on trying to find any consistency in old Dave Skinhead. For Dave and his skinhead friends, the right thing (double entendre intended) is strictly a matter of what he, personally, wants and truth is only a matter of emphatic assertion, the louder the assertion, the greater the truth. Referring obliquely to some vague misrepresentation of the intent of the Constitution is also a vital element of their approach; but, any pragmatic analysis of reality has no place at all.
Comment By bearbait, 3-15-10And now the joke: Harry Reid is the Senate Majority Leader. He is from Nevada. He is running for re-election. Mining is second to casinos as an income earner for state and local government in Nevada. Mining is important to Nevada jobs and its economy. A majority of the mine owning companies are Canadian or other foreign entities. Nevada leads the nation in percentage of the land owned by the Feds, 84.5%. Reid recently told Nevada miners and mining companies that reform of mining law was "not possible" in the current term of Congress. There is "too much on the calendar" to address change in mining law.
At this time, in these United States, with this Senate, with the current Democrat majority and its leadership in the Senate, mining law reform will never happen, just as it never happened with Sen. Byrd as Majority Leader (W. VA. is a mining state) or with Daschle as Leader (mining and drilling are big in S. Dak.) or Rahal in the House as committee chair of public lands. The liberal Democrats will protect mining just as they have the outrageous demands of unions in the auto industry knowing full well the disaster that lay ahead. It is about voters who work in mining and voter who worked in the auto industry. Politicians need their votes, even if it makes for bad public policy decisions.
Kiss mining reform "adios", "goodbye", because there is not the political will to pass it in the foreseeable future. Not because Skinner says anything, or anyone else defends any part of it. It is dead because Democrats and Republicans do not chair the committees or are a part of the Leadership of the Congress with which mining reform has to pass muster. DOA. Dead on Arrival.