The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scrambling to undo the environmental damage caused by their unwitting release of three million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River, which contaminated over 100 river miles with pollution that extended from Colorado to New Mexico, and has now even reached Utah. While the full environmental, health and economic consequences of this spill have yet to be determined, it is not too early to think about how to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
By the reckoning of those who know these issues, it is actually fortunate that there have not been been many more disasters of a comparable scale. Such sedimentary and heavy metal pollution from mining is far more commonplace than many realize.
“Abandoned mines sites are sitting out there in the tens of thousands, just in the West,” noted Professor Ronald Cohen of the Colorado School of Mines, “and a significant component of them are releasing this acid mine drainage to receiving waters.” And while these mines rarely produce damage as extensive or visible as the current predicament in the Animas, some estimates suggest that over 40 percent of Western watersheds are polluted, to one degree or another, by mining waste.
For much of the nation’s history, mining was lightly regulated. The basic law governing mining operations was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and has been largely unchanged. Admittedly, significant intervening environmental laws and regulations have created a new regulatory overlay for continuously operated and new mines. But dealing with the legacy of abandoned mines creates a particularly thorny problem. That’s why Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, has introduced HR 963, a bill that would levy a fee on the mining industry to generate $200 million annually to fund mine reclamation efforts. And that is also why a close reexamination of bonding requirements for current mining operations is in order.
One EPA estimate suggests that cleaning up all problematic sites could cost $50 billion, so while HR 963 seems like a modest first step in the right direction, there are still a number of logistical challenges to overcome. Abandoned mines and mine tailings can be found on federal, state, and private land. Sorting out who is legally responsible for them will keep lots of attorneys well employed. Establishing best practices for maintenance, prevention and cleanup is also proving to be technically difficult.
Lawmakers in the 19th century encouraged settlers to come west, to take big risks in extracting natural resources and thereby make their fortunes. They thought more about the upside of those risks than the downside. And far too few of them had any inkling or appreciation for how precious the natural resource of a pristine environment would be for future generations. While it’s not surprising that few of them considered the 21st-century environmental impacts of their actions, it is surprising is that intervening generations have done so little to prevent and mitigate the damage done by their lack of foresight.
The crush of orange filth pouring through the Animas River should be a wake up call to this generation of lawmakers about how to balance profitable extraction and the need for responsible environmental protection.