Webinar Replay: Removing Barriers to Cleaning up America's Abandoned Mines and Watersheds

According to the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. has over 140,000 abandoned hardrock mine features, of which 22,500 pose environmental hazards. Organizations that have no legal or financial responsibility to an abandoned mine – true Good Samaritans – want to volunteer to remediate these sites. Unfortunately, liability rules would leave these Good Samaritans legally responsible for all the pre-existing pollution from a mine, even though they had no involvement with the mine before cleaning it up.

On Wednesday, September 18 ConservAmerica hosted a webinar on S.2781, "Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024," which recently passed the U.S. Senate. The bipartisan legislation would make it easier for Good Samaritans such as state agencies, local governments, nonprofits, and other groups, to clean up and improve water quality in and around abandoned hardrock mines.

The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act creates a pilot permitting program to enable not-for-profit cleanup efforts to move forward while ensuring Good Samaritans have the skills and resources to comply with federal oversight. This pilot program is designed for lower-risk projects, which will improve water and soil quality or otherwise protect human health.

Moderator:
Brent Fewell, ConservAmerica

Panelists:
Justin Prosser, National Mining Association
Corey Fisher, Trout Unlimited
Jonathan Wood, Property and Environmental Research Center