Tester: Earth Day a good time to focus on challenges of mining reform

Earth Day Op-Ed - April 22, 2008

Over the past year, a lot of good things have happened in Montana that will make our state a better place for hunting, fishing and spending time with our families in the outdoors.

We saw the removal of Milltown Dam and the superfund cleanup of the waste behind it.  We got word that crews will begin cleaning up the upper Clark Fork River.  And Asarco has been ordered to take dangerous mining wastes out of the headwaters of the Blackfoot River.

But on this Earth Day, it’s important to focus on the challenges still ahead of us.

Our country commemorated the first Earth Day of sorts 136 years ago this month—in 1872.  Back then, Earth Day was called Arbor Day.  Interestingly enough, 1872 was the same year Congress passed the current Mining Law—a law that hasn’t changed since.  That was 17 years before Montana became a state.

Mining is—and always will be—an important industry for Montana.  It built entire communities, instilling our state with the value of hard work.  It’s time to use that commitment to hard work to make mining a sustainable industry for future generations.

But mining practices of the past have left big scars across our land.  Over the past century it has led to poisonous sludge in our water and toxic chemicals in our soil.

This year, the Senate is considering giving the 1872 Mining Law a much-needed overhaul.  I want to support meaningful mining reform legislation to allow the industry to grow responsibly.  I’m looking for a mining reform bill that will also help clean up the mistakes of the past by creating a program to clean up the thousands of abandoned mines in Montana.  The bill should also protect our water resources for future generations.  We need to make sure taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag when it comes to cleanup.  And we need to ask mining companies to pay their fair share for the valuable stuff they mine on the land we all own.

Congress has already held several hearings on mining reform.  Even mining companies are calling for an updated law that will help restore public confidence in their industry.  This Earth Day, I want you to know about my work to resolve the problems of the past and to clean up polluted waterways and abandoned mines still in Montana.

We’ll do it with common sense legislation and a lot of hard work.  It’s long past time to update a law Congress hasn’t touched in 136 years.

We in Montana are blessed with bountiful natural beauty and world-class fishing and hunting opportunities.  Mining reform will help protect those blessings for our children and grandchildren.  It will be good for our economy too, because cleaning up old mines is a challenge that comes with good-paying Montana jobs.  I hope Congress can produce mining reform that will be good for the future of an industry that shaped Montana’s history.

U.S. Senator Jon Tester is a member of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources and a third-generation farmer from Big Sandy, Montana.