The Legacy Mine Cleanup Bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), passed the Senate this week in a voice vote.
The legislation would make permanent a special Western office with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help coordinate reclamation of abandoned hardrock mines, including legacy uranium sites, according to online data on S. 3858.
In mid-March the measure passed out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works without a written report, a couple of weeks after being introduced. The measure has yet to go to the House of Representatives.
The legislation would codify the Office of Mountains, Deserts, and Plains with the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. The office was set up during the Donald Trump administration in 2020 to oversee hardrock mines west of the Mississippi, Lummis said in a Monday press release.
Among other things, the new EPA office would coordinate with other federal agencies concerned with abandoned mines to publish a 10-year plan, on efforts toward remediation of Navajo Nation abandoned uranium mine sites. The first such document would be due by September 2027,
Kelly and Lummis announced their bill last month.
Last week the governors of Arizona and New Mexico wrote the White House Council on Environmental Quality urged a more coordinated response to contamination from abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest.
