Bill would open public land
Thousands of acres could be privatized
More than 50,000 acres of old mining claims in Washington -- including some inside Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades national parks -- could be converted to private land under legislation expected to pass the U.S. House next week.
The proposal also would open up millions of acres in Washington's national forests -- and more than 350 million acres across the West -- to be newly privatized under a revision of the 1872 Mining Law tucked into a 184-page budget bill.
Critics who have dissected the language of the bill say it would make it easy to use a law passed 133 years ago to speed development of ski resorts, golf courses and the like in the backcountry today.
"It could be the biggest privatization of public lands in a hundred years," said John Leshy, a law professor considered one of the nation's experts on the mining law, who worked to limit its effect as a Clinton administration official. "This is all written in terms of mining claims, but it's really a real estate development law."
A major criticism of the 1872 law has been that it allows mining companies to take gold, platinum, silver and other valuable minerals off public land for free. Stung by public protests, the mining industry has long said it would be willing to pay a fair royalty when the law is updated.
But the legislation by pro-mining House members makes no provisions for such payment.
Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, said her group did not draft the legislation but understands Congress' intent.
"A royalty would in effect be an added cost," Raulston said. "The U.S. is a high-cost producer of almost all these metals on federal land, and we've been increasingly dependent on international sources for metals we need."
The legislation was written by the House Resources Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., wants rural towns to turn land that has been mined into useful developments.
"The important thing here is that we're trying to provide sustainable economic development," said Matt Streit, a spokesman for the Resources Committee.
Critics, though, note that the bill would allow someone to claim 20 acres, perform $7,500 of work on it -- easily blown through in a consultant's study or some drilling work -- and then sell the land for development.
"They could turn it over to real estate speculators, foreign companies -- whoever wants to buy it," said Dusty Horwitt, an analyst for the Environmental Working Group, which makes its points through data-crunching.
Continue reading this story from the Seattle P-I:
Bill would open public land
