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Action Needed: Open Pit Mining in Maine, LD 1032 via Maine Audubon

April 27, 2013 By

Action Needed: Open Pit Mining in Maine, LD 1032

by jgray  via MaineAudubon

We need your help to protect Maine’s waters, wildlife and communities from mining pollution! Support LD 1302, An Act to Amend the Maine Metallic Mineral Mining Act to Protect Water Quality (sponsor Rep. Jeff McCabe)

You Can Help in Two Ways
  1. Please attend a hearing at the Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Monday, April 29th at 9:00 a.m. in Room 216 of the Cross Office Building (directly behind the State House) to support a bill that would strengthen standards for mining in Maine.
    Contact Jenn Gray at jgray@maineaudubon.org or (207) 798-2900 if you can attend the hearing on Monday, April 29th beginning at 9:00 a.m., or if you have questions.
  2. Contact members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee to ask them to support LD 1302! (Please see contact information below)


The Facts – The mining industry has an extremely poor track record of polluting the environment and leaving taxpayers with the costs of clean up. In 2012, the Maine Legislature passed a bill that rolled back Maine’s mineral mining laws. Proponents of last year’s legislation are considering mining Bald Mountain in central Aroostook County. Should open pit mining occur in that location, the impacts could be dramatic – open-pit mining leaves large toxic acid ponds which could potentially drain through ground and surface waters into the Fish River and the Fish River Chain of Lakes, which provide some of the best brook trout fishing in the country.

Learn more on our Open Pit Mining page »

Why we need your help – LD 1302 amends last year’s law to protect water quality and Maine taxpayers from the risks of mining.  A huge turnout of concerned citizens at the State House last year helped improve the bill – we need your help!

Specifically, LD 1302 – An Act to Amend the Maine Metallic Mineral Mining Act to Protect Water Quality (sponsor Rep. Jeff McCabe) would:

  • Protect Maine’s groundwater by requiring DEP to measure compliance with groundwater standards as close as possible to mining-related activities;
  • Require an independent, third-party estimate of clean-up costs and ensure that mining companies place a sum equal to that cost in a secure trust;
  • Make any mining permit contingent on a company proving that at least one mine has operated elsewhere in the U.S., in a similar climate to Maine’s, without polluting groundwater or surface water;
  • Not allow any mines that would require wastewater treatment or other waste management activities in perpetuity (such as a tailing dams or liner maintenance). Specifically, LD 1302 would mandate that mining companies complete all clean-up, waste management and water treatment activities within 10 years of ceasing mining operations.

Maine Environment and Natural Resources Committee

Contact Information

House Phone Number: (800) 423-2900
Senate Phone Number: (800) 423-6900

Filed Under: Open Pit Mining