[CPEO-BIF] Abandoned Hardrock Mines

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Abandoned Hardrock Mines:
Land Management Agencies Should Improve Reporting of Total Cleanup Costs

GAO-23-105408
Published: January 13, 2023. Publicly Released: February 13, 2023

The U.S. Departments of the Interior (Interior) and Agriculture (USDA) spent approximately $109 million and $10 million, respectively, from fiscal years 2017 through 2021, to clean up contamination at abandoned hardrock mines on the lands they manage. Both agencies said they have more abandoned hardrock mines than funds to clean them up.

Interior and USDA included certain estimated costs for cleaning up abandoned hardrock mines in their financial statements, consistent with federal accounting standards. However, while not required to do so by the accounting standards, the agencies did not clearly identify which costs were specific to abandoned hardrock mines. Further, Interior and USDA budget materials did not communicate known information about implicit exposures related to abandoned hardrock mines—cleanup costs where there is an expectation that the government will provide assistance beyond the legally required amount. GAO's work on fiscal exposures demonstrates the importance of agencies providing decision makers with a comprehensive picture of the federal government's future financial obligations. Without Interior and USDA clearly communicating specific information on known potential future cleanup costs for abandoned hardrock mines, decision makers may not be able to make fully informed cleanup decisions.

Interior has taken some steps to implement the abandoned hardrock mine land program established under the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act to conduct certain activities, including inventory and cleanup, on mines on federal land, and provide grants for those activities to states and tribes with jurisdiction over abandoned hardrock mine land. For example, in collaboration with federal and nonfederal partners, Interior has begun developing a national inventory of mines and has drafted high-level goals and objectives for the program. As Interior continues building the program, it could benefit from developing performance measures—as described in leading practices for program management—to help officials fully assess progress toward achieving its goals and objectives.


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For more information and a link to the full report, go to
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105408

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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