Home

Good Samaritan Legislation

Helping Good Samaritans Clean Up Abandoned Hardrock Mines

For years Colorado legislatures have been trying to pass laws that would make it easier for groups to clean up toxic pollution from abandoned mines. These groups, which are not responsible for the pollution but want to clean it up anyway, are called, appropriately enough, Good Samaritans.


Published in

January 21, 2013--New rule may help clean up polluting old mines (Boulder Daily Camera)

A new federal policy should protect "good Samaritan" groups from liability if they try to stanch dangerous chemicals leaking from abandoned mining sites in the Colorado mountains and beyond, environmental officials say. The Denver Post reported Sunday that the Environmental Protection Agency tweaked its policy after years of prodding by Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.


Published in

New EPA Interpretation May Yield Higher Water Quality via Mine Cleanup Efforts

There are about 7,300 abandoned hard-rock mines in Colorado and a large percentage of them now drain toxic substances.


Published in

December 20, 2012--New EPA policy needs more teeth, Good Samaritans say (Telluride Watch)

A new policy issued by the Environmental Protection Agency last week aims to give Good Samaritans additional protections so they can help clean up the thousands of


Published in

September 9, 2012--Risk of lawsuits preventing cleanup of abandoned mines in Colorado (Denver Post)

Colorado mining authorities have dug through a mountainside and reopened the dark granite shaft of an abandoned mine that turned deadly — trying to find options for dealing with one of the West's worst environmental problems.


Published in

August 2, 2012--Help for local Good Samaritans could come from EPA (Telluride Watch)

U.S.

Published in

June 14, 2012--Tipton visits old, leaky mines (Durango Herald)

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, toured an old mining area in the San Juan Mountains on Wednesday to familiarize himself with issues involving toxic mine drainage. Tipton spent three hours near Gladstone, now a ghost town, where four abandoned mines are spewing up to 800 gallons a minute of toxic waste into the Cement Creek, a tributary to the Animas River.


Published in

Good Samaritan Support

According to a Telluride Watch article, after nearly 20 years of inaction, the creation of a Good Samaritan policy with regard to the cleanup of abandoned mine drainag


Published in

March 4, 2012--Good samaritan policy on mine cleanup has growing support (Telluride Watch)

After nearly 20 years of inaction, the creation of a Good Samaritan policy with regard to the cleanup of abandoned mine drainage flows has gained broad support across the West. There is now hope that it might gain traction with federal legislators and policy makers in Washington, D.C.

Published in

Good Samaritan’s Still Gridlocked

As mountain snow melts, toxic acid laced with dissolved metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, and zinc are fouling Colorado watersheds. Among the casualties: state environmental officials also have listed 32 sites along the Animas River in critical condition. The source of the contamination is abandoned mines—about 500,000 across the West, at least 7,300 in Colorado.


Published in
Syndicate content