In encouraging the Lawrence County Commission last summer to delay the Deadwood Standard Project's proposed Spearfish Canyon gold mine, Senator Stan Adelstein (R-32/Rapid City) said he planned to propose legislation to increase the bonding requirements on mining companies.
Senator Adelstein has placed that legislation in the hopper. He takes Senate Bill 141 to Senate Commerce and Energy tomorrow. SB 141 tightens accountability for South Dakota's mining companies in a variety of ways:
- SB 141 requires an applicant for a mining permit to deposit surety at twice the amount necessary to reclaim the affected land before receiving that permit.
- It expands additional financial assurance requirements from use of cyanide leaching or any other chemical or biological leaching process to include "any hazardous material" used in the extraction process.
- It defines the financial assurance required for the use of such hazardous extraction materials as "at least one hundred thousand dollars plus three times" the cost of cleaning up a spill of said materials (Stan! Check the language in section 2! You may need to add "any other hazardous material" after that line as well.)
- It adds a five-year review to ensure that the bond posted is still enough to satisfy these requirements.
Mining companies have left South Dakota holding the bag before on environmental clean-up of mine messes. Senate Bill 141 is a reasonable attempt to hold mining companies accountable the damage they may cause as they exploit our natural resources.
Our illustrious Republican legislature doesn't require corportate responsibility. Democrats tried to raise bonding requirements in the '80s, and the GOP legislature would have nothing of it. Let taxpayers pick up the tab - and taxpayers did pick up the tab. Fast forward. Mike Rounds took the Homestake underground mine off the hands - and the books - of its owner, and taxpayers agreed to assume all environmental liability for that. Then Transcanada came knocking. And Republicans not only defeated Democratic attempts to require financial responsiblity, they threw millions of dollars in tax breaks at the Canadian company & insisted that if Transcanada builds a second pipeline we gotta give them tax breaks on that too - without adequate bonding for environmental liability.
The SD GOP's refrain is "Ask not whether a corporation can do for itself. Ask what taxpayers can do for a corporation." Circle the wagons boys! We got enough GOP votes to defend the indefensible!
Senate committee kills Sen. Adelstein's SB 141 that attempted to increase minimum bond amounts for gold and uranium mines in South Dakota. RT @pierremercer