| October 20, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 21:
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Administration Lifts Restrictions for Dumping Mining Waste
The Bush administration recently announced it is ending a Clinton-era policy that restricted the amount of public land mining companies can use for dumping waste.
In 1997, John Leshy, then solicitor of the Department of Interior (DOI), issued an opinion that limited each 20-acre mining claim to one five-acre “mill site” for dumping and other support operations. Roderick E. Walston, DOI’s deputy solicitor, overturned this opinion Oct. 7, concluding there is no limit to the number of five-acre mill sites that each 20-acre mining claim can use. DOI also issued a final rule to implement the new opinion.
The administration’s reversal “puts clean water and community health at increased risk, with an open invitation to dump massive quantities of toxic mining waste on unlimited amounts of our public lands,” remarked Steve D’Esposito of the Mineral Policy Center.