The 1872 Mining Law, which reaches its 132nd anniversary this week, has allowed the federal government to essentially give away 9.3 million acres of public lands in the American West to mining corporations -- many of them foreign-owned -- who then exploit the land for profit and leave taxpayers to clean up the damage.[1]
Failure to change the law has left a black mark on many an administration -- a tribute to the lobbying power and campaign cash of the mining industry. Rather than push for long-overdue reform of this antiquated law, the Bush Administration has continued the process of giving away public lands for as little as $0.84 an acre.
To make matters even worse, the administration has actually weakened what few environmental protections were in the statute, by allowing for "unlimited use of public land for toxic mine waste disposal."[2]
Since the law went into effect 132 years ago, the federal government has sold 9.3 million acres of public land to mining companies and others at give-away prices, according to a report released this week by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Companies that exploit this law, many of them foreign-owned, then use the land for their own profit and do not have to pay the federal government one single penny for the minerals they extract. As if that weren't bad enough, the law then allows these companies to abandon the mines when they are through with them, and leave America's taxpayers to shoulder the cost of cleaning up the waste.
"What you see in this investigation is a taxpayer rip-off of epic proportions," said EWG Analyst Dusty Horwitt, in a press release detailing the report's findings. "The U.S. has given away millions of acres of its public lands, often for less than a dollar per acre. In return, mining interests have left polluted lands and rivers that cost taxpayers billions of dollars to clean up."[3]
The Bush Administration opened the door for mining companies to leave an even bigger mess behind when, in 2001, it abruptly codified (without public comment period) a decision by Interior Secretary Gale Norton that allowed for unlimited dumping of mining waste on public lands.
The administration further weakened protections by stripping language from federal regulations that would have prohibited approval of mines that could cause "substantial irreparable harm."
Even that was not enough. Interior Secretary Norton also wrote new rules that eliminated provisions protecting nearby water supplies from contamination from mining waste.[4]
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that mine waste contaminates 40 percent of western headwaters, and has cost taxpayers $35 billion in environmental clean-up fees.
The EWG report found that 94 foreign-owned corporations from 10 countries have gained control of metals beneath one of every five acres of claimed land in the U.S. -- an estimated 1.2 million acres of public land. Two of the top three claimants are foreign-owned: Placer Dome Inc., a Canadian company, has claimed 268,758 acres of U.S. public lands, and Rio Tinto Limited, an Australian company, has claimed 191, 928 acres.
Public lands claimed by companies under the 1872 Mining Law are not always used for mining. Under the statute, companies also lay claim to public lands in expensive resort areas and use the land instead to build luxury homes and condominiums.
Recently the Bush administration handed a multinational mining company 155 acres of federally owned, prime mountaintop real estate near a Colorado ski resort for just $5 an acre (a total of $875), in an area where 1/10 of an acre fetches as much as $100,000. [BushGreenwatch, May 5]
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SOURCES:
[1] “Who Owns the West?,” Environmental Working Group.
[2] Ibid.
[3] EWG press release, May 10, 2004.
[4] “Who Owns the West?” op. cit.
