Ten months after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Gold King Mine Disaster, the US House Committee on Natural Resources has passed three bills adding what members called “systemic problems in mining development and reclamation.”
One is the Mining Schools Enhancement Act which focuses on the steady reduction in mining and mineral engineering programs across the country.
“This deficiency in expertise is exemplified by the fact that out of EPA’s 15,326 employees, none are mining engineers,” said the committee in announcing passage of the measures.
The second measure is the Bureau of Land Management Foundation Act which establishes a foundation to facilitate cleanup of abandoned mine lands and orphaned oil and gas well sites.
The third measure was the Locatable Minerals Claim Location and Maintenance Fees Act. It establishes what it calls Good Samaritan provisions to encourage private sector remediation of abandoned mine land.
