Thursday, March 23, 2017

Another Environmental Failure from an Environmentally Focused Agency


After reading the Law Review article, I found the various federal government agencies' mismanagement of land currently or previously subjected to hardrock mining to be absolutely shocking. It appears that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has severely fallen down on the job. The BLM is responsible for managing approximately 260 million acres of public land in the West, and about 90 percent of that land is open to hardrock mining (811). The Inspector General of the Interior had to essentially rebuke the BLM multiple times for failing to conduct an inventory of hardrock mining sites on public lands or establish a mechanism to establish risk-based priorities for the reclamation of these lands (812). Without an inventory report it is almost impossible for other organizations to develop policies and priorities for reducing potential environmental harm. It is necessary to cultivate a comprehensive hardrock mining site inventory report for anyone to address the issues associated with mining sites.

The EPA estimated that about 10 percent of sites actively mined on public and private lands would present significant health hazards (815). Hardrock mining releases larger amounts of toxic substances into the environment than any other industry, and even though the mining companies have taken pains to improve their policies and processes, the mining action still poses strong environmental risks (821). When mines are inactive on public lands, it is difficult to enforce the liability for environmental cleanup and to come up with federal funds. Oftentimes the mining companies have lost their permits and dissolved, so where does the money for cleanup come from if the federal government does not have sufficient funds available? Arizona has an estimated 80,000 inactive or abandoned mines within state boundaries that cover more than 130,000 acres and pollute 200 miles of state waters (809). This is especially upsetting when you consider the struggles of the Tohono O'odham people who are culturally and environmentally impacted by both active and inactive mining activities. The tribe often does not have the funds or political power to salvage their lands from the mining sites. There must be a solution to their mining-related problems, but I cannot think of a very feasible one.

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