2009 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:07:42 -0800 (PST)
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] Mine waste cleanup in stimulus bill
 
Stimulus bill expected to restart mine cleanup

By JOAN LOWY (Associated Press)
San Luis Obispo Tribune (CA)
February 15, 2009	

When the Beal Mountain mine opened in 1988 near Butte, Mont., its owner promoted open-pit cyanide leaching for extracting gold from ore as modern and environmentally friendly.

Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company, extracted nearly 460,000 ounces of gold over a decade before closing the mine and declaring bankruptcy in 1998.

It left behind a 70-acre, cyanide-contaminated leach pond with a leaky liner and tons of rubble that sends selenium-laced runoff into streams, threatening cutthroat trout and other fish. The $6.2 million reclamation bond posted by the company doesn't come close to covering the full cost to clean up the mine, which could total nearly $40 million.

"There is a real ticking time bomb up there," said Josh Vincent, president of a Trout Unlimited chapter near the mine, which sits on U.S. Forest Service land.

Efforts to clean up one of the West's most enduring and dangerous legacies - tens of thousands of abandoned hardrock mines, many dating to the 19th century - should get a boost from the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Barack Obama's signature.

....

For the entire article, see
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics/story/622373.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org




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