Metal fatigue: Federal agencies should call a time out as Congress fixes outdated mining laws
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Gold mining is part of the rich history of Southern Oregon, conjuring up images of colorful characters staking claims they hoped would make them rich. Today, the search for gold and other minerals continues, under rules unchanged since 1872.
But modern-day miners don't use mules and pickaxes. They fly in hydraulic suction dredges by helicopter, vacuuming up river and stream beds in search of elusive flakes of precious metal. When they do that in the heart of a wilderness area, controversy is sure to follow.
The latest venture to raise the ire of environmentalists involves Dave Rutan, a Seattle real estate developer who bought miles of gold claims on the upper reaches of the Chetco River, as well as 45 acres of private property inside the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. He flies in paying customers to mine for gold in the Little Chetco River, as well as miles of the Chetco, stretching from inside the wilderness west toward Brookings.
At the same time, Illinois Valley miner Walt Freeman continues to establish claims on land he believes holds valuable deposits of nickel, chromium and iron in the Rough and Ready Creek drainage under the control of the Bureau of Land Management. Federal analyses have concluded Freeman's proposed mining would cause permanent damage to the area's rare plants and salmon and steelhead runs.
It ought to go without saying that digging for nickel and iron is a threat to an area proposed for wilderness designation and Wild & Scenic River status. It ought to be obvious as well that suctioning truckloads of riverbed gravel is incompatible with a world-class salmon and steelhead river in a wilderness area protected by federal law since 1964.
But federal law also protects miners, allowing them to take minerals from public land without paying the government royalties as oil and gas companies must do.
Efforts have been made repeatedly in Congress to change the Mining Act of 1872. The latest such attempt has been reintroduced in the current session after failing to make headway last year. The commercial hard-rock mining industry wields considerable clout, however, especially because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., represents a state heavily dependent on mining.
Short of updating the law, the federal government can withdraw sensitive areas from mineral entry, which bars new claims or continued mining of invalid claims — those that have not been proved to be profitable.
In November, Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along with Rep. Peter DeFazio, asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to order such a withdrawal for Rough and Ready Creek, the area south of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and the Chetco River. Vilsack, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, declined, saying his agency would rely on "existing federal laws and regulations" to protect the area.
Existing laws may not be enough. The price of gold is well above $1,000 an ounce, and California recently banned suction dredging, which could send miners north to Oregon.
Any revision to the Mining Act should recognize that mining is necessary and appropriate in some places, but balance that against the need to protect irreplaceable public resources such as rare plant life, wildlife habitat and valuable fish runs. Meanwhile, federal agencies should give Congress time to do that by halting new mining claims in the sensitive Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.
