Mining is the largest waste producing industry in the country, responsible
for leaking huge amounts of cyanide, arsenic and other toxins into surface
water and groundwater. Several years ago, a flock of over 340 snow geese
died after landing in a contaminated lake in Butte, Montana —- autopsies
showed that the extreme acidity of the water actually ate away the throats
of the geese. Even today, new mines are being proposed immediately
adjacent to people’s homes, upwind from elementary schools, in fragile
desert ecosystems, and amidst the wild lands which provide a home to our
few remaining grizzly bears. Because of this dire environmental and
health threat, the government established new mining safeguards in
January, following four years of public comments, intensive research,
debate, and study. Unfortunately, after just weeks in office, President
Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, capitulating to the mining
industry, put forth a proposal to suspend these new safeguards. If they
are successful, they will perpetuate the mining industry’s vast
environmental devastation, and they will make taxpayers (rather than the
mining industry) responsible for the current $1 billion in cleanup costs.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please send your comments by May 7th to the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, asking them NOT to suspend
the current mining regulations.
Write to:
- Director (630), BLM
Administrative Record 401 LS
1849 C St. NW
Washington, DC 20240
- Secretary Norton U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20240 . You can also email your comments through:
www.stoptherollbacks.org.
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