The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is making hardrock mines its chief priority for developing new financial assurance requirements for pollution cleanups. Other industries will be looked at later. A new EPA rule could be published as soon as spring 2011, the agency said.

Here's the agency's explanation, as provided in a press release:

"EPA decided to develop financial responsibility requirements for classes of facilities within the hardrock mining industry before it did so for other types of facilities. This conclusion is based upon those facilities’ sheer size; the enormous quantities of waste and other materials exposed to the environment; the wide range of hazardous substances released to the environment; the number of active hardrock mining facilities; the extent of environmental contamination, including the number of sites identified by EPA as needing cleanup under Superfund’s National Priorities List; and government expenditures, projected clean-up costs, and corporate structure and bankruptcy potential."

More information on the agency's planned rule, which was required by a court order, is available in this document, which delves deeper into EPA's rationale and also includes calculations of the cost of mine cleanups around the country.

I e-mailed some questions to EPA spokeswoman Latisha Petteway today. I'm pasting in my questions and her responses below:

EB: Has EPA previously reviewed the success or failure rate of current financial assurances for mines provided by states that regulate mining?

LP: Yes, the agency has reviewed the status of financial assurance at the Zortman-Landusky mine in Montana, Summitville Mine in Colorado, Gilt Edge Mine in South Dakota. Further, as part of the Asarco Bankruptcy Court Filings, EPA and the Department of Justice reviewed the financial assurance requirements of Asarco's holdings located on private, state and federal lands. Finally, EPA has evaluated financial assurance of mines located on state and federal lands as part of the General Accounting Office studies on the Hardrock Mining Industry.

EB: What if any existing federal statutes require financial assurances for mines?

LP: The Bureau of Land Management requires financial assurance for reclamation and closure of mines on federal lands under its 31CFR 3809 regulations. The US Forest Service requires financial assurance for reclamation and closure of mines on federal lands under its regulations,
36 CFR 228. If a mine is classified under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as a Treatment, Storage and Disposal facility, it would be required to obtain financial assurance under 40 CFR 264-265. The Office of Surface Mining establishes financial assurance requirements only for coal mine under 30 USC 1201.

EB: Are there any hardrock mines in the US that don't already have to provide financial assurances to the state or federal government? If not, how would regulation under CERCLA be different than what exists already?

LP: EPA is not aware of any hardrock mines in the US that don't already have to provide financial assurances to the state or federal government.
The key issue at hand is whether existing financial assurance requirements administered by states or other federal agencies adequately addresses EPA's statutory responsibilities to protect human health and the environment and to reduce the amount of public funds needed to address actual or potential contamination caused by hardrock mining.