During the recent pubic meeting in Patagonia, AZ, Coronado National Forest Supervisor Jim Upchurch explained that it was the Forest Service’s responsibility to make mining projects economically feasible. His explanation came about when answering a question related to reclamation bonds. Mr. Upchurch explained that if the cost of reclaiming a mine would cause a project to become uneconomically feasible, then the FS would ask for less of a reclamation bond. For example, in this hypothetical situation, if total reclamation would cost 100 million dollars, but the mining company proved that would make the project uneconomical, and they only could afford 30 million for reclamation, the FS would reduce the amount of reclamation required to fit their budget.
When evaluating a project, the total cost from start to finish has to be taken into account. If not, and using the above example, the taxpayers are left holding the bill on 70 million dollars of a waste dump – a potential Superfund site – that will never get reclaimed. This is a total give-away of our public lands to mining corporations so they can make money shipping their product overseas, and we are left with thousands of acres of unusable lands.
Another definition of insanity – Give away our public lands to foreign mining companies for nothing, allow them to ship the resources overseas to China, and then leave a toxic site never to be used again that depletes and pollutes groundwater and destroys local, sustainable economies.
