Part of $800,000,000,000 going towards mine reclamation?

[Stuart]

Now I hate to rub salt in our wounds, but I have heard that 1.6 billion of the $800,000,000,000 has been allocated towards boosting mine reclamation. Anyone have more information on this?

[Mike]

This article may give a little light to the situation, although it is focused more on coal and Wyoming:

[web:064b6d7b68]http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/02/26/obama-and-abandoned-coal-mines/[/web:064b6d7b68]

My favorite points of the article:

- Congress allowed states to funnel money to infrastructure construction that has little, if anything, to do with cleaning up old coal mines.

– Huge amounts of AML taxes paid by coal companies have been diverted to reclamation of non-coal mines in Western states.

… Lawmakers and regulators have allowed more than $1.3 billion of AML money to be diverted to other projects.

– States have poured $282 million into reclamation of low-priority problems — coal mine sites that harm the environment, but do not threaten public health and safety.

[rhartill]

AP wirestory from the Monterey California Herald newspaper

The 1.5 billion is a new budget for ALL BLM, USFS and NPS construction funding, so not all the 1.5 billion will go to AML cleanups. Some $$ will go toward building more outhouses at Yellowstone, etc. Still, the trememdous budget increases does mean they will have more money to spend, hopefully on signage and gates with keys now that they are all FLUSH with CASh from the taxpayer's wallets!

From the newswire:

The final bill, approved by the House and Senate on Friday, contains more than $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance projects in the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. That ***includes**** addressing pollution and safety hazards caused by abandoned mines on public lands.

The three agencies together spent about $25

million on mine cleanup in the budget year that ended last Sept. 30, according to the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who sought the money.

Projects ranging from repairing trails to replacing equipment also are eligible for the money, so there is no guarantee the money will be spent on mine cleanup. The bill says preference is supposed to go to projects that generate most jobs.

RDH says: MINE reclamation keeps a crew of 5 people employed for the duration of the project. NOT A BIG INCREASE IN JOBS, IMHO

Back to the newswire:

Advocates for cleaning up abandoned mines say the work is a strong job-generator.

"These much needed funds will create thousands of jobs, reduce water pollution, eliminate public safety threats, and restore fish and wildlife habitat in rural communities across the country," said Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, an environmental group focused on mining issues.

The Government Accountability Office estimates there are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota. Open mine shafts and decaying structures pose safety hazards, contaminants are polluting streams and groundwater, and piles of tailings tinged with arsenic have been left behind.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates it could cost as much as $50 billion to clean up all the nation's abandoned hardrock mines.

Anti-tax groups questioned whether mine clean up merits funds at all, considering that the bill is intended to jump-start the economy. Cleanups are temporary and unlikely to have any lasting economic effect, said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, which advocates for less government spending.

[one_bad_rover]

So should recraft one of our email items to go specifically to the OSME and some of these organizations and highlight the fact that the Utah DOGM, claims it has closed all of its coal mines and thus has begun work on Hard Rock mines. As such, Utah should be certified and cut off of AML funding... anyone have some input on how to write this up and who to send it to?

[Mike]

I think we should recraft an email and shoot one out. Russ, any advice and idea who we would send this to?

[RockRacer]

Re: AP wirestory from the Monterey California Herald newspap

The Government Accountability Office estimates there are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota. Open mine shafts and decaying structures pose safety hazards...

A wise man (Mike) once told me that closing up an abandoned mine is more dangerous since that is when they really start decaying.

Seems like the politicians need to better understand the difference between coal mines and hard rock mines.

There has got to be better things to spend money on, especially these days! How about this idea, stop spending money.

[Mark1955]

There has got to be better things to spend money on, especially these days! How about this idea, stop spending money.

I heard on the news the other night that 1 in 8 Utah children are still living in poverty. That to me sounds to me like a much better place to direct those funds. The other thing to remember is that in Utah (Corey told me about this) The individual counties actually have the jusisdiction over the closure funds... not the state. The funds are apparently sent to each individual county and earmarked for this purpose. There is at least one county that is at odds with the way the closure plans now stand and they won't release those funds until an agreement is made that leaves at least some access to them. Perhaps Perhaps Corey can chime in on this or Russ probably a bit more about this situation . Now I believe it was Milford where the local town council passed an ordinance against the closure of mines and it's this angle of attack where educating and or convincing county and local town councils that may proove to work better to prevent closure.

Mark

[rhartill]

A brief overview of who to contact and what to say

P79 of this document states clearly that CWHA [current whitehouse administration] believes that payments should be terminated to coal-producing states that no longer need funds to clean up abandoned COAL mines.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Department_of_the_Interior.pdf

DOGM has coal mine fires still raging underneath our state yet divert most of their monies to close noncoal mines.

DOGM also erroneously calculates ALL 17K estimated noncoal mine openings as being dangerous to public saftey, while all other western states
chose a small percentage of their mines as being dangerous. This bogus estimate amounts to fraud and mismanagement...

You can report waste and mismanagement to the DOI IG office


Circulate this poster and visit this website

http://www.doioig.gov/uploadPDF/OIGHotlinePoster_small.pdf

DOI program mismanagement/waste hotline

http://www.doioig.gov/index.php?menuid=382&viewid=511&viewtype=PAGE

OSM

organizational chart with hotlinked email addresses

http://www.wrcc.osmre.gov/wrorgchart.pdf

OSM report on Utah and other states, by year, can be found here:

http://www.osmre.gov/Reports/EvalInfo/EvalInfo.shtm

A line by line refutation of Utah's most current report would be helpful:

http://www.osmre.gov/Reports/EvalInfo/2008/2008.shtm

Once a specific project is selected and underway, they will need SHPO concurrence. Pressure on them NOT to concur starts with a review of the steps outlined here:

http://history.utah.gov/state_historic_preservation_office/compliance_arch_resources/index.html

We need to establish that a specific site's integrity has not be compromised, or that the proposed project WILL
effect the site's integrity. Rather than giving lip service to this concept, DOGM should be held accountable for proving that integrity would and is
not compromised. Up until now, they just SAY that sealing up mines doesn't destroy site integrity, and the SHPO takes their word on it.

Integrity--

my own summary

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5574926/Guidelines-for-documenting-integrity-at-mining-sites

the NPS view on the subject:

http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb42/mintro.htm

Specific NPS langauge on integrity

http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb42/mi4.HTM

Lastly, I am thinking that the coal producing states that would like MORE $$ should be made aware of Utah's fudging of their figures and perhaps THEY should be demanding that UT be defunded.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/statepro/imagemap/usaimagemap.htm

Other strategies:

Is the royalty tax constitutional?

http://www.wpcamr.org/organization/meetings/2008May/PostGazetteHopeyArticle2008May09%20Coal%20companies%20fight%20royalties%20on%20exports.pdf

Defeat senators who are pro-reclamation:

http://www.sierrafund.org/news/8-News/263-Feinstein%20AML%20cleanup

Of course, fully one half of the mine closures in any given project are done with private landowner permission, because they have been convinced by DOGM that huge liabilities will ensue if they don't cooperate... this is why I have drafted the following OPEN LETTER to mine claimants and patent owners..

http://mojaveunderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3381#3381

[Mike]

Great information Russ. I am putting together some notes to do some work with some of those links.

[ExpUt]

Wow, amazing revelations here... been reading through all those links. What a backwards system? Who comes up with this non-sense. Thanks for all the information.