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FRIENDS OF THE PANAMINTS ALERT LETTER 2/20/03 |
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The following Email was sent to all on the Friends of the Panamints Alert List. Let Tom Budlong know if you want to get on the List back to Main Page
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Thursday, February 20, 2003 To the Friends of the Panamints The Briggs mine on the west slope of the lower Panamint Range has created open pits and huge waste-rock and cyanide heap-leach piles. The scars are permanent. CR Briggs sees more gold several miles north, also on the Panamint Range west slope, and wants to repeat the destruction there. Need Letters of Support to the Regulators for New Mining Regs
1) Proposed New Backfill Regulations – Please Write Letters of Support Recent temporary California regulations require new mine pits to be re-filled (backfill) after the ore is extracted. Should Briggs make a new mine in their exploration area. Such a requirement would go a long way toward repairing the mine’s environmental damage. Also, due to the expense of backfilling, it would require a higher gold market price to make the mine economically feasible. The new regulations are not yet permanent. We need letters to the regulators to show support for making the regulations permanent. Status of the Backfill Regulations SMARA is California’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, passed in 1975. It intends to do just what the title implies – control mined surfaces. Some of the pertinent language: From the legislative findings and declarations (2711): “…reclamation of mined lands … will provide for the protection of and subsequent beneficial use of the mined and reclaimed lands.” From the legislative intent (2712): …assure that adverse environmental effects are prevented or minimized and that mined lands are reclaimed to a useable condition which is readily adaptable for alternative land uses. SMGB is the State Mining and Geology Board. The SMARA legislation instructs the SMGB to create regulations to implement SMARA. Surface mining companies in California must live by SMGB regulations. Backfilling: The SMGB is now in the process of working up regulations to require refilling (backfilling) new open pits after mining is complete. They have passed emergency regulations that have immediate effect. But these regs are only temporary. They hope to make the regulations permanent by the middle of the year. The catalyst for this effort was the threat by Glamis Gold to open a huge open-pit, cyanide heap-leach mine on sacred Quechan Indian lands in Imperial County. Open pits from such mines seldom are left in “useable condition readily adaptable for alternative land uses”, nor are they available for “subsequent beneficial use” — the language in SMARA. The SMBG’s discussion of the new regulations recognizes the open-pit problem. It contains the following: “…it is often difficult to envision how the remaining open pit is readily adaptable for a beneficial alternate use, or how the ‘open space’ itself is usable.” New SMBG Regulations: The pertinent new proposed regulation is (3704.1.a): “An open pit excavation created by surface mining activates for the production of metallic mineral shall be backfilled to achieve not less than the original surface elevation…” This would appear to apply to any new open pit that might be created, including the potential new CR Briggs mine in the Cecil-R-Jackson exploration area three miles north of the current CR Briggs mine. How Can Briggs Wiggle Out? A potential hole is the grandfather clause, section 3704.1.i of the proposed regs: “This regulation does not apply … the lead agency has issued a final approval of a reclamation plan … prior to December 18, 2002.” This recognizes you can’t put new rules on old mines. OK. But for Briggs, would a mine in the new area, several miles north, be a new mine, or an extension of the existing mine? More specifically, the section talks about the reclamation plan. Could Briggs extend the current mine’s reclamation plan to the new mine? Perhaps they could do this by moving the new mine’s waste rock and ore to the site of the current mine. The answer isn’t clear. The proposed regulations need to be specific that new pits be backfilled. Where the proposed regulation exempts previously approved reclamation plans it should instead exempt only previously approved pits. Letters are Needed The SMGB needs to hear that people are listening, watching, and concerned. You can bet the mining industry is making noise. Please Write a Letter Today. The comment period started Feb 14, and extends for 45 days. Some suggested talking points: § You support the State Mining and Geology Board’s (the SMGB) effort to ensure the intent of SMARA is carried out by requiring backfill. § You can be specific that you are concerned about the Briggs expansion, and want to make certain the regulations they are making will force backfill of new pits in the Cecil-R/Jackson exploration area, and any other new pits CR Briggs or their parent, Canyon Resources Corp. might make in the Panamints. § Express concern that exempting revised reclamation plans could be a backdoor to exempting new pits. § If appropriate, include your experience with and affection for the Panamint Valley and Range. You need not be technically correct as to ‘page and paragraph number’, since you are not making a legal argument, and as a layman are not required to speak the language. Be a concerned member of the public. Where to write: Send your letter to Allen M Jones, the chairman of the SMGB. You could also send copies to the other five members. This will ensure they all get a copy, in case the letter to Allen Jones does not get distributed.
Their address is: California State Mining and Geology Board 801 K Street, MS 24-05 Sacramento, CA 95814 Also send a copy to Mary Nichols. This is important. She is California Secretary of Resources, appointed by the governor. At the December 12 meeting of the State Mining and Geology Board she spoke about the impact of open pits, and the need for backfilling. Her address is: Mary Nichols, Secretary California Resources Agency 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311 Sacramento, CA 95814 Thanks for your help. 2) Recent Chronology
3)Websites of interest: Bob Ellis has given his website a better name, and has added more information. You can even see the IBLA appeal to BLM’s approval of the permit allowing exploration at the Cecil-R/Jackson site.
Tom Budlong, TomBudlong@Adelphia.net (Email comments, and to be added or removed from the list.)
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