Enviros complain mining rules will degrade groundwater

The Bush administration’s amendments to hard rock mining rules issued under the Clinton administration remove new authority for the Secretary of the Interior Department to veto mine permits that cause substantial, irreparable harm to the environment or historic sites.

The new rules, finalized on Oct. 30 (Fed. Regist. 66, 54,833), reflect recommendations made in a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report concluding that existing state and federal laws do an adequate job of protecting the environment, says Karen Batra, spokesperson for the National Mining Association, a trade group.

Environmental critics complain that the new rules remove federal protections for groundwater. Specifically, Bush dropped the Clinton administration’s requirement that mine companies minimize the impacts of pumping water out of open-pit mines, says Tom Myers, hydrologist with Great Basin Mine Watch, a conservation group in Reno, Nev.

The groundwater pumping draws down the water table, drying up streams, springs, and wells used by people and livestock, according to Myers. Under the Clinton rules, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would have required the pumped water to be returned to the aquifer. The new rules also revoke BLM’s authority to protect groundwater quality when issuing mining permits, Myers says. Now, BLM cannot act if it discovers acid or heavy metal pollution in groundwater beneath waste rock piles or leaking tailings impoundments, he adds.

Great Basin Mine Watch joined two other environmental groups to file suit in federal district court in Washington D.C. on November 23, charging that the new rule violates the mandate of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to prevent undue degradation of public lands. The environmental groups have petitioned the court to prevent the Bush rules from taking effect while it considers the case. —JANET PELLEY