good samaritan

If you want a good explanation of why it makes no sense to require every draining mine in Colorado to have a treatment plant at its base, check out the recently-posted video titled “Act of Congress: Good Samaritans and Draining Mines.”

Colorado Independent writer Katie Redding joined Progressive Talk 760 AM host David Sirota this morning to discuss her recent reporting on insurance industry gender discrimination and pending national Good Samaritan water cleanup legislation.
Redding dialed in from her chilly open-air back porch in Leadville, teeth chattering. Sirota asked the usual good questions.

Just outside of Central City in Colorado’s Gilpin County, the historic Perigo gold mine drains metal-laden water at an average of 70 gallons per minute into a small perennial stream known as Gamble Gulch. Below the mine for six miles, the gulch is virtually devoid of life, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety.

A design for a proposed project has been completed, but Colorado won’t bid it out for construction because it worries that if it does, it open itself up, in perpetuity, to a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall has taken a careful look at mining reform proposals and has announced that he is co-sponsoring the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009, a Senate bill sponsored by New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall’s new streamlined Good Samaritan legislation, designed to encourage volunteer water cleanup projects, may yet become law. It is the 11th piece of Good Samaritan legislation to be introduced in Congress in the last 15 years. Udall’s bill, however, is drawing more support and less opposition than the previous bills, all of which failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall announced Wednesday that he introduced “Good Samaritan” legislation that would provide legal protection for non-profit and other groups who would cleanup water contamination issuing from abandoned mines across Colorado.