Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our spring member drive has ended, but it's not too late to give. You have the power to help fund the essential journalism that keeps us all informed. Help us close the gap on our spring fundraising goal! GIVE NOW

Utah's Abandoned Mines Exact A Heavy Price

blm.gov
Abandoned mines can vary greatly in size and cost of clean-up.

Nearly 11,000 abandoned mines dot federal lands in Utah, posing not just an environmental cost, but a heavy financial one as well. The estimated price tag to ensure that they are environmentally safe comes to an astounding $2 billion.

Back in August, the Gold King Mine in Colorado spilled large amounts of contaminate into the Animas River. Jessica Goad, Advocacy Director with the Center for Western Priorities, said that Utah’s number of abandoned mines is high, even compared to other Western states.

“There are thousands of mines across the West that are slowly trickling toxic waste into our rivers,” Goad said. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a pretty astounding statistic that says that 40 percent of the headwater rivers and streams in the American West are contaminated right now by abandoned mines. Utah is in the top three states with the highest number of abandoned mines on public lands and it’s behind only Arizona and California.”

Advocates of state control claim that states could manage public lands in a more cost-effective manner than the federal government. Yet, Goad said that the financial costs would bankrupt a state like Utah if federal lands were handed to the states.

“Those costs right now are taken on by American taxpayers via the federal land management agencies but should those public lands be transferred to the states, those costs are going to be transferred to the state of Utah,” she said. “We think that the staggering price tag of abandoned mines on public lands severely undermines the arguments of folks who are proposing this idea and who claim that states could afford to take over the management of our public lands.”

The Center for Western Priorities also estimated that the total cost to clean abandoned mines in the West to be $21 billion.