The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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The Bureau of Land Management NEWS |
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Last updated: 04/04/03
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Bureau of Land Management Interim Director Sylvia Baca announced today that the BLM has resumed an effort begun in the late 1980s to update its hardrock mining regulations on BLM-managed public lands. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt recently directed the BLM to revise and update its hardrock regulations -- the "3809" regulations -- to ensure better protection for public lands affected by hardrock mining activities.
To accomplish its work, Baca has established a task force composed of BLM and Interior Department personnel who are familiar with hardrock mining issues. The task force will develop for Secretary Babbitt a detailed timeline and proposal for completing the new rule.
In announcing the BLM's action, Baca cited a January 6, 1997, memorandum of Secretary Babbitt, who said that "the time has come to resume the process of modernizing the 3809 regulations first promised at the end of the Carter Administration and begun at the end of the Reagan Administration."
The newly created task force will address: (1) the use of "best available technologies" to prevent "unnecessary and undue degradation" of public lands; (2) performance standards for the conduct of mining and reclamation activities; (3) alternatives to the current exemption from reclamation standards for mining operations of five acres or less; and (4) ways to improve coordination between the BLM and state regulatory programs.
Baca said, "Given the significant public interest we expect in this
proposal, especially from the mining industry and environmental community, we want
meaningful public input." She said the effort will likely require the BLM to prepare
an Environmental Impact Statement, and that the timeframe for completing this task will be
determined by procedures set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act.
More information on this regulatory effort can be obtained from Secretary Babbitt's
memorandum (referred to above) and a February 6, 1997, memorandum responding to the
Secretary from Interim Director Baca and Assistant Secretary Bob Armstrong. Both documents
are available online
or by request from local BLM offices.
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