The Jackson-Hole Star Tribune is reporting that the Colorado Congressional delegation is sponsoring a bill that would let environmental groups and governments attempt to clean up old mines without fear of long-term liability. From the article, "Momentum is building in Congress and across the West to make it easier to clean up the old, abandoned mines dotting mountains and polluting streams, with lawmakers looking for ways to protect Good Samaritans who want to step in and help.
"A major obstacle is a federal law that results in, "If you treat it, you own it," said Patricia Limerick, director of the University of Colorado's Center of the American West, which issued a report Wednesday on the problem and some solutions.
"Colorado's congressional delegation is sponsoring bills that would protect conservation groups, companies or states from legal trouble if they clean up a site endangering drinking water supply or a gold-medal trout stream.
"Representatives from federal agencies, the mining industry and Coloradans dealing with zinc, arsenic, lead and other metals flowing from gold and silver mines, some dating to the 1800s, said changes in the law are crucial.
"There are thousands of the mines, whose operators are long gone, throughout the West and about 500,000 nationwide, according to federal statistics. Estimates vary on the magnitude of the fallout, with the U.S. Bureau of Mines putting the figures at 12,000 miles of Western waterways -- 40 percent -- and 180,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs contaminated by mine drainage.
"What stops local governments or activists from taking on the projects is the Clean Water Act, the groundbreaking legislation that set water-quality standards.
"The 1971 law holds anyone who tries to right old wrongs liable for the pollution from then on. They must also meet stringent water-quality standards, even if a less comprehensive cleanup would do as much good."
Category: Colorado Water
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