The number of mining claims within five miles of cities and towns in the state shot up almost 150 percent in the last five years, the Environmental Working Group says, from 2,786 to 6,793.
Overall, there are now 34,516 mining claims in the state as of January 2008 compared with just 8,723 in 2003, the group says in a new study conducted in part with the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining. That's a dramatic increase likely pushed by a boost in prices for gold, silver, copper, uranium and other metals, the group says.
"The data show that claims and communities are on a collision course in the West," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Campaign. "This potential crash is due in large part to the nation's frontier-era mining law, which places few restrictions on where and how mining can take place on western public lands."
The Environmental Working Group and the Pew Campaign are lobbying to overhaul the 1872 Mining Law, which hasn't been touched since it was put into place and now is being used to stake thousands of claims to parcels on public lands to dig up precious metals.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a second hearing today and is expected to vote on a reform bill next month changing the law to provide more say-so to states and communities affected by metals mining.
"The law that governs the mining of gold, uranium and other hard-rock metals made sense when it was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 to encourage development of the West," Danowitz said on a conference call with reporters. But, "Since 1872, the West has changed more dramatically perhaps than any other region of the country."
The report released Tuesday says the largest percentage increase within five miles of an incorporated area of Utah was near New Harmony in southwestern Utah. That community saw a 2,400 percent increase in claims from Jan. 1, 2003 to this year. La Sal, a small town near Arches National Park, saw claims jump more than 1,000 percent. And claims near Wendover, Utah, shot up by more than 400 percent, the group says.
The National Mining Association responded to Tuesday's report, arguing that the numbers are misleading because only 5 percent of mining claims ever become operating mines.
Additionally, NMA spokesman Luke Popovich says communities and individuals have "ample" opportunity to oppose the mines under the National Environmental Protection Act and laws governing Bureau of Land Management areas at the time operating plans are filed on the claims. On the back end, he added, communities and individuals can oppose the release of bonds put up by the mining operators if they do not meet their responsibility to reclaim those lands.
What's more, Popovich added, the strongest support for hard-rock mining comes from the mining communities, who rely on the operations for a large part of their economic base.
The House passed legislation last November that would change the 1872 law to allow a state, political subdivision or Indian tribe to petition the Interior Department to remove specific federal lands from claimable territory to protect valuable and important areas.
The legislation also would impose a 4 percent royalty fee on existing permits and establishe a civil penalty for failure to comply with royalty payments. It also would protect several areas from mining claims: wilderness study areas, areas of "critical environmental concern," areas designated to be included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System and any area inside a roadless area as determined by the Forest Service.
tburr@sltrib.com
