The 3809 rebellion

It’s springtime in Washington, D.C., which invariably draws protests about whatever is the hot-button issue of the season. On May 9, anti-mining forces gathered on the lawn of the Capital building to warn the public about the Bush administration’s rollback of “3809 rules” governing surface management of hardrock mines on public lands. The usual suspects were there: Representatives Nick Rahall and Jay Inslee, Senators Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold, talking heads from the Mineral Policy Center and Taxpayers for Common Sense, and (for a dash of grassroots credibility) “twenty citizens from around the west whose lives would be affected by the rollback in safeguards.”

The 3809 rules, which became effective hours before George W. Bush became president of the United States, were part of a flurry of legislation pushed forward at the eleventh hour by the Clinton administration. To hear the tale told at the Washington press conference, these rules allow the federal government to prohibit new mine sites on sensitive federal land and prevent mining pollution, such as cyanide and arsenic, from contaminating rivers and streams. But (ring warning bells) Bush is about to reverse Clinton’s good works for the benefit of the mining industry, “the nation’s largest toxic polluter.”

Jill Lancelot, co-founder of Taxpayers for Common Sense, also used the event to call for an end to the “subsidies” received by mining. “It is one of the only industries that is subsidized from start to finish. They get gold for free, they buy taxpayer-owned land for the price of a McDonald’s hamburger and, to top it off, taxpayers foot the bill for mine cleanup. When is it going to end?”

Well, Ms. Lancelot, it ends where common sense begins. Gold isn’t free, land can’t be had for the price of a burger, and reclamation bonding is required on all major mining operations. As for subsidies, the mining industry is subsidizing your comfortable lifestyle, not the other way around. It may be possible to live without common sense these days, but not without metals or minerals. Try it sometime. No house, no car, no light, no heat, no travel, no microphone, no medium and no message. After a few days in the Stone Age, common sense becomes more than a trite cliche.

The press conference, and the broader “Stop the Rollbacks” campaign, didn’t get as much coverage as expected, mostly because the participants overplayed their hand by resorting to scare tactics and shoddy propaganda. Another reason was that mining associations were on hand with their own “Stop the Distortion” campaign, which made it clear that the industry is not fighting to roll back or lessen any necessary environmental regulations. They pointed out that the new 3809 rules were promulgated illegally, that industry opponents are dead wrong whey they say suspending the new 3809 rules reverses rules requiring mining companies to pay for clean-up of their sites, and that suspension of the new rules will not change how the placement and disposal of mining wastes are regulated. They also pointed to a National Academy of Sciences study, commissioned by Congress, that supports suspension of the new 3809 rules. This study concluded that the existing array of federal and state laws is generally effective in protecting the environment, and that improvements in the implementation of existing regulations present the greatest opportunity for improving environmental protection and efficiency of the regulatory process.

This doesn’t mean the battle is over. “Stop the Rollbacks” is an ongoing campaign that leaves few nasty stones unturned. It now claims that the mining industry will be the “chief beneficiary” of the Bush administration’s delay of safer standards for arsenic (to five from fifty parts per billion) in drinking water.

The Bush administration has taken considerable flak for its decision to postpone a reduction in the maximum allowable arsenic in drinking water. However, the Clinton administration did the same thing for eight years, because the new rules were opposed by a few localities where arsenic occurs naturally in water (including a few Democratic strongholds). Compliance would require the use of expensive reverse-osmosis technology in virtually all cases, with minimal health benefits.

Another legacy of the Clinton administration is mining’s unfortunate designation as “the nation’s largest toxic polluter,” based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) provisions. However, 85 to 99 per cent of the “releases” reported by mining companies are large quantities of naturally occurring inorganic metals that remain in low concentrations in ordinary rock that is moved, stored, processed and managed at the mine site. These reports are weight-based, and are not designed to evaluate environmental risk.

Still, such misconceptions persist, which makes it imperative that industry associations do more to anticipate, and then counter, phony claims and ludicrous overstatements made by anti-mining zealots. These groups have demonized industry and conservative politicians as foes of the planet for so long that it has become a reflex, even when the evidence isn’t there. When will it end?