Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Activity

BLM land shaded in gray

BLM-California manages 15 Resource Areas (RA's, Field Offices) comprising over 15.2 million acres in California and northwest Nevada. BLM managed-land per RA ranges from about 63,000 acres in Arcata to over 2,000,000 acres in the Barstow RA.

About 120 Wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas are included in the managed acreage.

Nearly 13,000 mine properties in CA and northwest NV are listed in the Bureau of Mines Mineral Industries Location System (MILS) database as on BLM land. An estimated additional 5,000 sites not recorded in the database are likely on BLM land. Of these 18,000, an estimated 3,000 significant properties contain hazardous substances or physical features and/or have environmental problems.

No comprehensive AML inventory has been conducted on any RA in the state and six RA's have no recorded inventory of mine sites.

The CA State Office, from mid-2000, has been conducting watershed-based projects that have and will continue to identify mine sites with environmental and/or safety issues.

To date about 40 "high priority" sites have been identified, and more than 200 sites* have been added to the Abandoned Mine Land Identification System AMLIS database.

*About 525 sites were included in the AMLIS database in 1999 based on very fragmented and incomplete data collected in a Field Office survey. These data will be updated as field projects proceed.