Various Mining-Related Regulatory and Non-scientific Issues of Interest

1. Various Mining-Related Regulatory and Non-scientific Issues of Interest Nick Ceto U.S. EPA, Region 10 Seattle, Washington ceto.nicholas@epa.gov

2. Research Needs - A Field Perspective

3. Research must focus on three fronts to be valuable to practitioners in the field 1) To develop mitigation technologies to address the environmental threats posed by mining and mineral processing facilities. Research should address priorities issues with an emphasis on cost-effective, low O&M approaches.

4. Research must focus on three fronts to be valuable to practitioners in the field (cont’d) 2) To develop tools for prediction of environmental impacts from mine development, operation, and long-term/post closure conditions.

5. Research must focus on three fronts to be valuable to practitioners in the field (cont’d) 3) Research on unique environmental issues in historic mining districts, to include site characterization, cumulative impact assessment, and management strategies to achieve realistic cleanup goals.

6. Specific areas of interest include:  Establishing closure performance standards for existing and proposed mines  Evaluating financial assurance requirements  Establishing flexible environmental performance standards in historic mining districts  Addressing liability concerns through Good Samaritan legislation.

7. Establishing Closure Performance Standards Goal: Mine closure that achieves environmental goals on a “perpetual” basis with affordable, manageable, and achievable O&M requirements.

8. This requires: Adequate site characterization and predictive tools to understand future environmental conditions and establish closure standards to address those concerns.

9. This requires: (Continued) Development of monitoring programs that provide “early warning” of environmental problems to allow implementation of mitigation actions.

10. This requires: (Continued) Evaluating financial assurance requirements Accurate estimates of the costs to implement stable, long-term closures that meet environmental performance standards is required to assure that mine operators will implement closure, not the taxpayer. Environmental contingencies must also be included in financial assurance planning.

11. This requires: (Continued) -Accurate analysis of environmental risk in order to develop appropriate long term closure and environmental contingency management strategies -Accurate estimates of the capital and O&M costs of environmental control technologies so that adequate financial assurance may be calculated

12. This requires: (Continued) -Establishing Environmental Performance Standards in Historic Mining Districts Establishing environmental performance standards in historic mining districts must address the problems presented by extensive areas of waste disposal coupled with both chemical and physical insults to the aquatic ecosystem

13. This requires: (Continued) -Addressing liability concerns through Good Samaritan legislation Concerns over liability has discouraged parties from implementing cleanup projects in historic mining districts............CERCLA can address many of these concerns, but the CWA must be modified to reflect the need to accept projects that make some progress towards, but may not fully achieve, environmental goals.

14. This requires: (Continued) -Addressing liability concerns through Good Samaritan legislation Concerns over liability has discouraged parties from implementing cleanup projects in historic mining districts............CERCLA can address many of these concerns, but the CWA must be modified to reflect the need to accept projects that make some progress towards, but may not fully achieve, environmental goals.