Audit finds hazards from abandoned mines

One BLM official told auditors that fencing a site could lead to BLM liability, because it was an acknowledgment that BLM knew about the site. An employee was told not to identify abandoned mine sites because it got in the way of other duties. Several employees reported management threats against their careers for raising abandoned mine issues.

"The findings of this audit paint a picture of compelling urgency, which should trigger a quick call to action by both the department and Congress," the audit concluded.

Congressional act takes time
For years lawmakers have tried but failed to rewrite the General Mining Law of 1872, which was meant to settle the West by letting prospectors stake claims and mine gold, silver and other minerals for free. The law contains negligible cleanup requirements but has survived essentially unchanged through today.

Last year the House passed a reform bill to create an abandoned mine cleanup fund and force mining companies to pay royalties, like coal and other extraction industries already do. But efforts have stalled in the Senate. The main obstacle is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a gold miner's son who has long protected the gold-mining industry in his state.

Reid has said he opposes the House bill, and though legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., it has not advanced.

"Sen. Reid has been an advocate for responsible mining law reform and will continue to be," Reid's spokesman, Jon Summers, said Friday.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said the audit "underscores the need to pass meaningful reform of the law before additional tragedies occur."

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