https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Pollution-proposal-change-is-challenged-12920569.php
Pollution proposal change is challenged
Environmental groups decry reversal on mining
Published 6:43 pm, Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Billings, Mont.
Environmental groups challenged the Trump administration in federal court Wednesday over its rejection of an Obama-era proposal that would have required mining companies to prove they have enough money to clean up their pollution.
The Idaho Conservation League, Earthworks, Sierra Club and other groups filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., asking it to review last year's move to drop the rule.
An attorney for the environmental groups said the reversal under President Donald Trump leaves taxpayers responsible into the future for mining pollution that fouls waterways and endangers public health.
The proposal applied to "hard-rock" mines that extract gold, iron, lead and other minerals, but not coal.
There is a long legacy of taxpayer-funded mine cleanups at many sites where companies went bankrupt and abandoned polluted sites.
The mining industry and members of Congress from Western states had pushed to kill the rule, arguing it was unnecessary because of existing cleanup requirements already enforced at state and federal levels.
In December, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt agreed with the industry's contention that modern mining techniques decrease pollution risks.
