Everyone who believes in breathing clean air and drinking clean water should be pleased the Mesa County Commissioners have finally put teeth into the permits for the waste pit developers. Mesa County members of Western Colorado Congress have been pushing for this for over a year. Although some restrictions could be stronger, we are pleased with the big changes.

In line with protection for water resources and the necessity to clean up waste water from abandoned mines, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 244–166 and has been referred to the Senate. This Bill, HR 2262, would replace the Hardrock Mining Act of 1872, which is totally inadequate and out of date.

The bill is now in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Sen. Ken Salazar is a member of this committee and, if you care about reclamation incentives for those who work to clean up wastewater from abandoned mines, let him hear from you. When mining companies have exhausted mineral deposits and moved on, the land still belongs to the public. Think of Leadville.

For those who care about our BLM and national forest lands and want to see them preserved for everyone to enjoy, we need strong, clear laws to maintain environmental integrity and wildlife conservation in our abandoned mined areas.

PEGGY RAWLINS
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.