“A huge win. We did the impossible. It’s been a long time coming.”
So said Ty Churchwell, Trout Unlimited’s national mining coordinator, who, with TU colleagues and hundreds of other partners, brought a 25-year effort to establish bipartisan legislation to clean up abandoned hard rock mines home last week.
The Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, is a model piece of federal legislation everyone, particularly those in the Animas River Watershed, should feel good about.
“Good Sam,” as it is known, was born here. The need for this type of legislation, identified 30 years ago when the EPA determined that by law mines draining heavy metals into water sources are point sources of pollution, removes barriers and risks for state agencies, nonprofits, industry and others to remediate abandoned mine sites nationwide.
The legislation does not eliminate liability. If the good samaritan fails to improve site conditions or has an accident, then liability waivers are lifted and all Clean Water Act provisions remain in effect, allaying some early concerns expressed by environmental groups.
There are an estimated 23,000 hard rock mine sites in Colorado and more than 100,000 across the country, though mostly in the Western states and why the Western Governors Association and Conference of Western Attorneys General endorsed the legislation. When abandoned coal and uranium mines are included, which are not covered by this legislation, the number increases to an eye-popping 500,000 nationally.
The severity of the problem was brought to the nation’s and world’s attention with the 2015 Gold King Mine spill, and is why TU, a national conservation group focused on stream and river recovery, native trout and salmon protection, was a lead advocate for the legislation.
The spill, ironically created by an EPA contractor, released 3 million gallons of mine water and tailings and turned the Animas River orange. It demonstrated how abandoned mines can affect water quality and leach heavy metals into waterways like the Animas River.
The impacts of actively draining abandoned hard rock mines, unaddressed for decades, are not just environmental. They affect economies and communities, too. Downstream communities, including the Navajo Nation whose members for spiritual reasons refused to drink or farm with the temporarily contaminated water, and businesses can suffer.
Which is why local, state and national outdoor industry businesses supported the legislation. Most fly-fishing enthusiasts will know the Montrose-based Ross Reels, Fishpond of Denver and RepYourWater, all of whom joined boat manufacturers, outfitters and guides, among others to support the legislation. As did the National Congress of American Indians on behalf of all tribes.
Locally, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe endorsed the legislation, as well as La Plata, San Juan, Hinsdale, Ouray, Mineral, Summit and Clear Creek counties. The Southwest Water Conservation District and Denver Water did, too.
An approach others would be wise to adopt is the “Noah’s Ark” style that TU embraced seeking legislative sponsors, one Democrat and one Republican at the same time. No one was added to the bill from a party unless there was a “D” and an “R” to sign on simultaneously. Forty co-sponsors in the Senate split almost equally, 21 Republicans, 18 Democrats and 1 Independent, and 19 Republicans and 17 Democrats in the House.
Congressional District 3 Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican, joined four other Democratic Colorado House members in support, with Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet co-sponsoring in the Senate.
Good Sam won’t solve all the problems, but it fills gaps and serves as a great complement to Superfund, to finally address a serious problem that exists all over the West. Thank you, legislators, for showing us how the government can work.
As the adage goes, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly named who identified the need for this type of legislation and timeframe. It was the Environmental Protection Agency, not Peter Butler, who identified the need in 1994, not the 1980s. Nor is Butler a local attorney, rather a Ph.D. co-founder of the now disbanded Animas River Stakeholders Group.
