Budget Calls for Cutting Funds to Close Abandoned Mines

Efforts to plug up thousands of abandoned mines that dot the West could suffer under budget cuts proposed by President Bush.

The president is recommending a $35-million cut to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation program, which subsidizes the states’ mine cleanups.

“It’s kind of a starved outlook,” said Robert Evetts, program manager of New Mexico’s mine reclamation project. The state has about 20,000 hazardous mine openings it is working to close.

But the $1.9 million the state received this year to help its efforts would be cut by $300,000 under the Bush budget. Colorado’s share would be reduced from $2.6 million to $1.9 million, and Utah’s would fall from $1.7 million to $1.6 million, according preliminary numbers from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

“If that budget goes through, it will affect us in a significant way,” said Mark Mesch, administrator of Utah’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. “They will continue to expose the citizens of the state of Utah and those individuals visiting the state to the hazards those open mines present.”

Three weeks ago, a snowmobiler in the Uinta Mountains drove into an abandoned mine shaft, one of about 20,000 in the state. The snowmobile got wedged and the rider was not seriously injured.

The budget cut would probably mean one project a year would be scrapped, meaning 50 to 150 mine openings would not be closed.

In a region with a population growing faster than any other in the country, the expanding cities are exposing people to greater danger from abandoned mines.

Dave Bucknam, supervisor of Colorado’s program said there are mines just east of Denver that pose a threat. The cuts would mean about 100 mine openings would not be closed next year, he said.

Indian tribes would also take a hit, with the Navajo Nation’s portion cut from $2.6 million to $1.9 million, and funding to the Hopi tribe cut from $500,000 to $300,000.

The Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund was created by Congress and contains a fee collected from mining operations. But the money spent on reclamation has not kept up with fees collected, and there was $1.3 billion in the account at the end of last year.