Abandoned mines in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Mohave County, Arizona. There are at least 140,000 known pits, tunnels, and other mine features on federal lands, with the actual number potentially far higher. Image: Norm Lane/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Interior and Agriculture departments together spent about $120 million over 2017-2021 on cleaning up abandoned hardrock mines on land under their control but how much more spending will be needed is difficult to determine, GAO has said.
The number might be high, it added, because there are at least 140,000 known pits, tunnels, and other mine features on federal lands, with the actual number potentially far higher. Of those, there are at least 22,500 known abandoned hardrock mine features that may “pose risks to human health and the environment because they can leak toxic chemicals, such as arsenic, into nearby waterways.”
The two departments are on the hook for the costs of cleaning up their lands “if no viable potentially responsible party is identified.”
GAO said the agencies do include some of the potential costs in their financial statements but they are not required to, and do not, specify which costs are specific to abandoned hardrock mines nor the potential additional costs “where there is an expectation that the government will provide assistance beyond the legally required amount.”
GAO noted that environmental liabilities have been on its high-risk list since 2017, “in part because environmental liabilities represent the fourth-largest liability on the federal government’s financial statements and because of their continued growth”—by about a third over the following four years to a now-estimated $613 billion.
It credited Interior with taking steps under funding from the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act to inventory such mines and provide grants to states and tribes with jurisdiction over them. However, the GAO recommended that Interior develop performance measures and that both it and Agriculture improve their reporting of potential total costs. It said the departments agreed with those recommendations.
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