It’s not easy fighting mines. Under the 1872 General
Mining Law, mining is the “highest and best use” of federal public
lands, and every anti-mine effort is an uphill battle. But buried
in the Bureau of Land Management code of regulations is a glimmer
of good news for activists: a directive to the secretary of
Interior to avoid “unnecessary and undue degradation” of public
lands by mining. This rule, referred to as 3809, has not been
revised since it was first released in 1981, and the nonprofit
Mineral Policy Center wants to see it get tougher. The group is
leading a push to revise the rule, supporting stricter cleanup
requirements for public-lands mines and fat penalties for badly
behaved mining companies. The BLM released a new version of the
rule in August, including some of these reforms, but a rider in the
1999 Interior Appropriations Bill would block the review of 3809
for at least two years. Supporters of the rider say that a study by
the National Academy of Sciences is needed before any reforms can
go forward.
The BLM’s proposed revision of the
rule can be found on the Web at
www-a.blm.gov/nhp/Commercial/SolidMineral/3809. For more
information, contact the Mineral Policy Center at 1612 K Street NW,
Suite 808, Washington, DC 20006, (202/887-1872), or send e-mail to
mpc@mineralpolicy.org.
* Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mining: There’s a reform-blocking rider.
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