Orange Alert! Toxic Plume's Call to Action

 by Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Director

The dumping of three million gallons of heavy metal-laden sludge into the Animas River is a clarion call to action. The orange plume’s path through last week’s news cycle alerted citizens to the fact that our drinking water is threatened by a backlog of hundreds of un-reclaimed mines and a 143-year-old law that gives mining companies unfettered use of our public lands.

The 1872 Mining Law “allows mining companies to buy federal land for a few dollars an acre, demands no royalties and requires minimal environmental protections while the mine is operating and no cleanup afterward.”

Its principal legacy, if it can be called that, is a battered landscape of abandoned mines and poisoned streams.

– New York Times, "What the Gold Mine Disaster Tells Us"

Calls to reform the 1872 Mining Law are not new. Nor are toxic mine spills. But, we now have a window where national outrage needs to be focused like a laser on solutions. 

We see at least four opportunities for reeling in the antiquated law that has left “a battered landscape of abandoned mines and poisoned streams” in its wake:

1.  Petition agencies to improve regulations under existing laws;

2.  Reform the 1872 law, as Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva’s bill (introduced earlier this year) would do;

3.  A permanent ban to mining on specific public lands by presidential proclamation of a national monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act (see for example); and

4. Challenging federal agencies in court to enforce modern environmental and cultural protection laws to prevent permanent pollution to our land and water.

All four actions are red hot. We’ll need your support to turn the orange plume’s legacy into real progress.

Please watch for breaking news about our new campaign to change hard rock mining regulations—and how you can help.