Rehberg friend of mines, foe of taxpayers

 Why should Montana taxpayers be on the hook for cleaning up the mountains of toxic waste left behind by defunct mines?
As Montana's man in Congress, Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., should be working to make sure his constituents don't get stuck with the cleanup bill when a mine company goes bankrupt and tries to walk away from its mess. Yet, last week Rehberg sneaked a rider onto a federal budget bill that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from developing rules that would allow the agency to collect reclamation bonds from mining companies adequate to clean up their hazardous waste.
The bill may come to a floor vote as early as Monday. We're landowners who live downstream from some of the worst mines in Montana. We're concerned about the toxic threat to our ranches, our trout streams and our tribal lands. These sites must be reclaimed so that our water is safe to drink and fish and our land is safe for grazing, planting and recreation. But far too often, we - and you - have to pay for cleanup out of our own pockets.
Look at just three examples where the tab for reclamation will top $80 million:
n Thirteen years after closure of the Beal Mountain Mine in the upper Clark Fork River basin, cyanide and copper has polluted nearby native trout steams. The owner, Pegasus Gold, filed for bankruptcy in 1999, but left only a $6 million bond for cleanup. The latest estimate from the Forest Service for cleaning up the site is upwards of $40 million.
n At the defunct Zortman-Landusky mine adjacent to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, severe acid mine drainage has polluted fresh drinking water supplies and ranchland. The Department of Environmental Quality says the acid runoff will continue for hundreds of years. So far, taxpayers have been responsible for $15 million in cleanup costs, with no end in sight to the ever-escalating bill. To make matters worse, this spring's floods destroyed some of the water treatment equipment already installed, adding to the expense and leaving folks downstream unsure about the safety of their water. There is still no adequate water treatment system to deal with the pollution coming downstream onto the reservation.
n The Mike Horse Mine on the upper Blackfoot River near Lincoln is another costly catastrophe. The last owner, ASARCO, went bankrupt, and the state has spent decades suing them for damages. The now-defunct mine has a tailings pile that dams the headwaters of the Blackfoot - a ticking time bomb of contaminated metals. Total cleanup costs are estimated at $29 million.
Mining is important to our state's economy. But mining produces waste, and mining companies don't always act responsibly. It's essential that companies are required to put up adequate reclamation bonds in case things go wrong.
When a mine plays out or the company goes bankrupt, the EPA often inherits responsibility for cleanup through the Superfund program - particularly when other agencies haven't required a large enough reclamation bond to cover clean-up costs.
This rider hamstrings the EPA from doing its job to protect our public health and natural resources. It seems a no-brainer that the EPA should be able to collect a reclamation bond from mining companies who stand to earn millions in profit from extracting Montana's resources. Failing to require an adequate bond is like letting someone rent your house without putting up a deposit to cover possible damage to the property.

Tacking riders onto budget bills is always a bad way to legislate, but this one is particularly inappropriate because it's fiscally irresponsible. Rehberg's rider is a special favor for the mining industry that hurts Montana landowners and taxpayers. We teach our children to clean up after themselves. We should make polluters pay, especially when our rivers, ranches and drinking water is on the line.