Tax dollars shouldn't fund failed mining - The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

In territorial days – and even many years into statehood – Montana suffered the status of a virtual colony to the wealthier states on the East and West coasts. The state’s natural resources were looted and all the profits were taken away with little regard for who and what was left behind. To find evidence of this, one need look no further than the abandoned mines scattered throughout the state and the public expense of cleaning them up.

A Chronicle report published Dec. 10 told of state Department of Environmental Quality estimates there are some 6,700 abandoned coal and hard rock mines dotting the Montana countryside. These sites pose the gamut of environmental and physical risks, from heavy metals and other pollutants leaking into water sources to open mine adits into which people can fall or become trapped.

The report recounted successes the DEQ has had recently reclaiming a few mining sites despoiled decades ago. But many remain. They are being cleaned up using money provided by the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which for 40 years has levied fees on mines to raise funds for reclamation. But the act is slated to expire in 2021 and mining interests and their advocates are already lining up against its renewal.

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That’s certainly an issue that bears watching. But the larger issue is the long history of failing to hold mining companies sufficiently responsible for cleaning up their messes.

State lawmakers should consider creating a state mine reclamation fund by imposing fees on current mining projects. And, more importantly, they should beef up mine cleanup bonding requirements.

The state has long required mining companies to post cleanup bonds. But in the late 1990s, following the bankruptcy of the Pegasus Mining Co., which saddled state taxpayers with millions of dollars in cleanup costs at the company’s mining sites, Montana lawmakers increased bonding requirements for getting mining permits exponentially. But several audits in ensuing years found the requirements were falling short of what was needed. The requirements were increased, but it’s probable those bonding requirements are still inadequate for covering the cleanup of a major mining failure.

Lawmakers should commission an in-depth audit of our mine bonding requirements to ensure they cover the worst-case scenario. If they don’t, they should be increased to ensure they do. If that means some mining projects are no long financially viable, then they shouldn’t go forward. Taxpayer assets should not be risked on speculative mining ventures.

The past is the past. It’s over and done. But we don’t need to relive the past in the future. The evidence is overwhelming: Public money has been gambled – and lost – far too many times in the past on failed mining projects.

It must never happen again.