Health and safety issues should be industry focus

It is politically impossible to rein in a bureaucracy of managerial environmentalists” that has overseen expenditures of US$10 billion since 1980 while implementing and administering Superfund programs, says William Grayson, executive vice-president of Vulcan Material. The legion of lawyers, corporate managers and government employees who draft and administer the environmental laws and regulations are politically untouchable,” he says. As a result, the mining industry will have to continue to deal with environmental regulations that in some cases have less to do with environmental stewardship than with maintaining a system that protects special interest groups.

Grayson used the example of environmentalists in Germany opposed to the use of aluminum cans. He said they were supported by glass manufacturers interested in protecting the glass container market. Similarly, some regulations are supported by vested interests because they make it more difficult for competitors to enter the market.

There are some things that should be done and aren’t getting done,” he said, and urged the mining industry to concentrate on those environmental issues that affected health and safety. The mining industry must be environmentally responsible and that meant doing the right things for the right reasons.”

Grayson was one of four speakers during the keynote session, Mining within our environment,” at the joint annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Engineers and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration here Feb. 25-28. Environmental issues played a large part in the joint convention this year.

As well as the keynote session, a technical program on Environmental management for the 1990s” spanned the four days of technical sessions. Seventy papers dealing with the environment were on the program. Registration for the convention and trade show at Denver’s Colorado Convention Center topped 5,000 making it one of the largest gatherings of mining professionals in the U.S.