Senator Ron Wyden And Other Democrats Unite on “Hardrock Mining Act”

Martin Heinrich and Sen.

Michael Bennett, a Democrat from Colorado, and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat from New Mexico staged a press conference early Thursday to unveil the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2015.

The proposed legislation – the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2015 – will make mining companies pay royalties for extracting resources from public lands. Rep. Luján is a cosponsor of House Resolution 963, similar legislation that has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Those royalties, and an abandoned mine reclamation fee from 0.6 percent to 2 percent on both new and existing mines, would be deposited into the cleanup fund. “Coal, oil and gas companies have paid royalties for many decades”.

Congressional Democrats are proposing new fees for mining on federal land to pay for cleaning up sites like Colorado’s inactive Gold King Mine, where 3 million gallons of wastewater spilled into rivers in three states.

In Lincoln County, a few residents living near a mining operation on patented land within the Lincoln National Forest are complaining about noise, vibration and other negative impacts from a lead ore mine north of Capitan. The funds collected from the royalties would be used to clean up abandoned mines and deter future spills. Sen.

Republicans proposed a Good Samaritan bill earlier this week in response to the Gold King spill, and Sen.

This legislation would require a 2 percent to 5 percent royalty rate for all new mining operations.

“The current mining laws date back to when the West was first being settled and we’re still giving away land to multimillion-dollar mining companies”, Udall said in a call with reporters Thursday. Gold and silver on public lands are a natural resource, just like oil and gas. “Mining has been intrinsically linked to our history, economy, development and culture, but it’s also left scars across Colorado and other states”. More than 200 mines in Colorado are leaking acid mine drainage that is polluting headwaters and affecting water quality for communities downstream.

“The Gold King mine is part of a larger problem – the accident should be a wakeup call to Congress about the dangers we face”, Udall said, adding that thousands of abandoned mines are “ticking time bombs” that could cause more hazardous waste spills.

This reform is a way to address that issue, he said. They said they could not estimate how much would come from royalties.

“Right now, huge multinational mining companies can extract gold, silver and other valuable hardrock minerals that belong to American taxpayers without paying a dime under a mining law passed when Ulysses S. Grant was President”, Markey said. And it would not be in anybody’s interest to tie good Samaritan legislation to mining law reforms.