Introduction
Mining

The traditional image that we have of metal mining is one of an old man with a long beard, a pickaxe, and a donkey descending into a tunnel in the side of a mountain that follows a vein of some ore. This image has been fed to us many times over on television and film, and was true at one time back in the 1800's. However, this type of mining went out of style in the early half of the 1900's when tunnelling equipment and mechanization began to replace human power in the tunnels and mine shafts. This equipment could do the job of many men, and increased the rate at which minerals could be removed from the ground.

However, even this type of mining was not fast enough for some operations. By the middle part of the 1900's, open pit mining came into style for removing ore as a cheaper and faster alternative to traditional mining. Rather than having miners go down into a shaft and slowly remove crushed rock in an enclosed space, this type of mining meant opening a giant hole in the ground with explosives and scooping out crushed rock with large cranes in trucks. There is no need to worry with things like cave-ins or black lung disease in this type of mining, since there is no enclosed space. As the hole gets larger, roads are carved along the outside of it to allow the cranes and trucks to go down deeper to extract the crushed ore. In some locations, the operations of these mines has gotten so large that mountains have disappeared, in favor of giant holes in the ground of several thousand feet deep.

Superfund Sites

While open pit mining has fewer hazards to the safety of the miners, it is not without its serious consequences for the environment. Since there is more ore that is removed, there is an increased amount of pulverized tillings that is created. If this crushed rock had the same chemical composition that is found in most soils, this would not present too much of a problem, since we could just mix it with some organic matter and spread on the ground. However, these tillings have a high concentration of heavy metals and radioactive isotopes.

The holes that are left in the ground also present a huge problem. They often fill with water to form new lakes and ponds. Since water is a great solvent, this newly exposed rock, rich in heavy metals and radioactive substances, is oxidized and dissolved over time by the water, putting minerals into the lakes and ponds that are not often found in bodies of water at the Earth's surface. After a while, these watering holes become extremely acidic and toxic in heavy metals. In some of these, the acid is strong enough to dissolve quarter inch steel in a matter of days. Animals coming to these bodies of water, such as ducks, geese, and other waterfowl, usually die in a very short period of time.

Leachate from these and other types of mine gets into underground water supplies and into river systems. When it does, it can cause serious harm. If the mine is still in operation, then the mine owner is responsible for taking care of this problem. If the mine owner goes bankrupt, or just abandons the mine, then the task of remediating the problem falls to the federal government. The Western U.S. is littered with an estimated 300,000 abandoned mines from the past century of activity. The cleanup of these is left to the EPA, which was given this authority by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act or "Superfund" Act.

The Superfund program is involved in cleaning up all large-scale toxic waste sites, whether they are mining related or not. Recently, though, this program has fallen on hard times. When it was initially passed in 1980, CERCLA authorized taxes on corporations to pay for the cleanup of the waste sites. That authorization expired in 1995. Since then, Congress has failed to re-authorize these taxes, resulting in a tremendous decrease in the operating funds for the Superfund program, and shifting the entire burden of the cleanup of these types of sites from the companies that created them to the taxpayers. Recently, the Bush Administration stated that it would not ask Congress to re-authorize these taxes , effectively stopping any chance of making the companies that create the pollution pay for its cleanup.  

The sites below provide information on mining and the Superfund Program.

Superfund

EPA Superfund
Mining Related Superfund Sites
Bureau of Land Management Abandoned Mine Lands Cleanup Program
Locate Superfund Sites
Status of Superfund Program (GAO)
Surface Mining Law (for reference only)

Mining

Kennecott Utah Copper
Montana Resources, Inc.


After reading through these and any other sites that you might find, answer the following questions

• Should the mining companies that created the Superfund sites be responsible for their clean up? What should happen when a company goes bankrupt or disappears?Should Congress re-authorize a tax on corporations to pay for the Superfund program?
• One aspect of the Superfund program is to encourage redevelopment on former sites. Examples of some former redevelopment projects include libraries, golf courses, and shopping centers. How would you feel about visiting or working at a former Superfund site?