{"id":102452,"date":"2017-12-14T21:02:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T04:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mining-moves-epa-decision-to-drop-obama-era-rule-risks-continuing-a-toxic-pollution-legacy\/"},"modified":"2017-12-14T21:02:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T04:02:32","slug":"mining-moves-epa-decision-to-drop-obama-era-rule-risks-continuing-a-toxic-pollution-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mining-moves-epa-decision-to-drop-obama-era-rule-risks-continuing-a-toxic-pollution-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining moves: EPA decision to drop Obama-era rule risks continuing a toxic pollution legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Silverton-:Water
Silverton-:Water flowing down the mountainside out of the Red and Bonita Mine in July 2013 contains high levals of manganese, zinc, copper, lead, Cadmium, aluminum, and iron that will make its way into Cement Creek that inhibits aquatic life and vegitation. Since about 2004 metal concentrations in Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River, have \u201ceasily doubled,\u201d says Peter Butler of the Animas River Stakeholders Group.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Obama\u2019s EPA viewed as a common-sense rule to guarantee that taxpayers would not be left to foot the bill for future mine cleanup was declared an onerous burden on the industry by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.<\/p>\n

Unnecessary was Pruitt\u2019s verdict because the rule would damage \u201can important sector of the American economy and rural America, where most of these jobs are based.\u201d Unnecessary as well, industry advocates added, because modern mining practices, combined with permit regulations and bond requirements already in place, make the likelihood of abandoned-mine pollution problems small.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Obama rule was going to force mining companies to ante up: an estimated $7.1 billion financial obligation for the industry, to be met by having to set aside some $171 million each year, according to an EPA analysis.<\/p>\n

But some perspective is required: from 2010 until 2014 alone, the EPA spent $1.1 billion on cleaning up abandoned hard rock mining and milling sites across the country. Current EPA estimates put the costs to American taxpayers of cleaning up the existing backlog of thousands of abandoned, polluting mines \u2013 including the designated Superfund site near Silverton \u2013 at well over $50 billion.<\/p>\n

That is largely the century-old legacy of mines operated and then abandoned long ago. Still, you will forgive us for not trusting to the industry\u2019s good word that the toxic cycle won\u2019t be repeated where mining is planned or currently underway.<\/p>\n

While we view hard rock mining, done responsibly, as a legitimate component of Colorado\u2019s economy, it is hard to view this move as anything other than crass pandering to mining industry objections and to President Donald Trump\u2019s voter base. It is right in line with his February decision to lift another Obama mining provision, this one the Stream Protection Rule that prohibited coal mining companies from dumping mine waste into rivers and streams. The simplistic argument for that move was that the rule was an undue burden on coal producers, who out of economic necessity were going lay off workers as a result.<\/p>\n

To counter Pruitt\u2019s shortsighted move, environmental groups have responded predictably: \u201cWe\u2019ll see them back in court,\u201d said Bonnie Gestring of Earthworks, one of the plaintiffs in the court case that helped generate the mining rule waived on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

There may be a better, Colorado-based remedy in a current push to require the same level of financial cleanup guarantees from mining companies operating in the state. A bill with that intent failed to receive the sponsors and support needed to move through the Legislature in 2016.<\/p>\n

In light of this EPA decision, the time to reintroduce the legislation may be now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silverton-:Water flowing down the mountainside out of the Red and Bonita Mine in July 2013 contains high levals of manganese, zinc, copper, lead, Cadmium, aluminum, and iron that will make its way into Cement Creek that inhibits aquatic life and vegitation. Since about 2004 metal concentrations in Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5821,5819],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-opinion","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102452"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}