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Featured
Campaign
1872
Mining Law reform
President
Ulysses S.
Grant visits Colorado to sign historic proclamation: 2008 is time to
'bid
farewell' to 135-year-old law
Whistle stop
tour
includes Denver
DENVER—Gilpin
County Commissioner Jeanne Nicholson
and local leaders were joined here
today by President Ulysses S. Grant, who delivered a Presidential
Proclamation
calling on Colorado’s U.S. senators to modernize the 1872 Mining Law,
which
governs the mining of gold, uranium and other hardrock metals in the
West.
Grant, who signed the Civil War-era statute 135 years ago, was at the
Colorado
State Capitol in downtown Denver as part of a four-state “Farewell to
1872”
tour. Grant will also travel to Portland, Missoula, and Albuquerque. A
letter
signed by Colorado legislators, mayors and county commissioners calling
for
immediate reform of the 1872 law was also presented at the event.
The former
President made a similar
appearance at the U.S. Capitol last November to mark passage by the
U.S. House
of Representatives of a bipartisan bill to modernize the nation’s
135-year-old
mining law, which still gives mining priority over other uses on many
western
public lands. The U.S. Senate is expected to produce its own reform
proposal
next month, and senators in Colorado and other western states will have
a
significant role.
“It’s time
for Congress to say goodbye
to the nation’s 19th-century mining law and welcome a new
approach
that will protect western communities, water and special places,” said
Pete
Kolbenschlag, representing the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining. “We
hope Colorado’s
senators will take swift action to give the new West a modern and
meaningful
mining law.”
Along with Commissioner Nicholson, representatives from the recreation
and
outdoor industry, sportsmen and tax-payer organizations, and
conservation
leaders accompanied Grant’s appearance, sponsored by the Pew Campaign
for
Responsible Mining. The tour includes radio ad buys in Denver and the
other
three western cities, telling the story of the picks and pack mules
used to
mine when the law was enacted.
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US Grant
whistle stop photos by Erica Peth, Pew Environmental Group
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At the
Denver whistle stop news
conference, Dusty Horwitt with the Environmental Working Group (EWG)
highlighted a recent report by that organization showing a boom of new
mining
claims encroaching on western cities and towns to stress the context
surrounding the need for reform. The EWG review of federal data
follows
an analysis released last summer that found a similar dramatic rise in
new
claims around the Grand Canyon and other national parks.
Mining
is the number one source of toxic releases in the West, and nearly 40
percent
of the headwaters of western watersheds have been contaminated by
hardrock
mining, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Grant
and his
wife, Julia Grant, wore period costume and were portrayed by Larry and
Constance Clowers, performing historians from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Written
from Pew Campaign for
Responsible Mining news release
More information at www.pewminingreform.org
EcoFlight
recon trip leads to discovery of fifth oil and gas 'incident'
Although unable to locate the site of four previous
oil and gas spills
in the Garden Gulch area on the Roan Plateau in Garfield
County Colorado (on private land just to the west of the BLM's Roan
Plateau Planning Area), a recent EcoFlight reconnaissance trip made a
discovery of its own: a fifth unreported 'incident.'
Photo by Pete
Kolbenschlag/EcoFlight
The EcoFlight trip included representatives from
several local and national conservation groups who were able to
photograph this large frozen pile of brown mud, perched above Parachute
Creek. The discovery is a major stormwater or other
discharge from a pipeline
construction project, where the company failed
to include necessary soil retention devices ('silt fences') and
apparently also failed to report this mishap to the state. Thanks
to EcoFlight, at least this incident will not go unreported.
Read all about it under News
& Updates
at MountainWestStrategies.com
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