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Fall 2001 Bulletin
The final Molycorp closeout hearing, where the cleanup permit is due for completion, begins on September 5. This should have been the culmination of a year of intensive negotiations between the company, the state and Amigos Bravos over all the details of reclamation, driven by the New Mexico Mining Act’s requirement for re-establishing a self-sustaining ecosystem at the mine site and by the cleanup-guarantee bond of $129 million agreed last fall. Given the complexity of the issue, the rational approach would have been for Molycorp to make the running on the engineering and revegetation studies needed, resolving points of contention so that only the most difficult remained for the public hearing. In doing so they could have come up with a plan that both met the public interest in a thorough reclamation (as well as the legal requirements), and set out the efficient and effective workplan they need to minimize their own costs. They have not done so. It should be pointed out that the news is not all bleak, however. In agreeing to the $129 bond, up from $15 million before last year’s hearing, Molycorp basically agreed to reslope and re-shape its huge, acid-generating waste rock dumps, rather than insist that they have no pollution, safety or even visual impacts; and to provide an upgraded groundwater treatment system for as long as it is needed. These two advances, which have already been secured, should go a long way toward permanently protecting the Red River and area groundwater from pollution. (The control of acid mine drainage (AMD) pollution of ground and surface water is required by the NM Water Quality Act and the federal Clean Water Act.) Yet Molycorp/Unocal have continued to drag their feet in meeting the requirements of the NM Mining Act, passed in 1993 and considered one of the most environmentally-enlightened mining laws in the country. The Mining Act requires reclamation to “a condition that allows for the re-establishment of a self-sustaining ecosystem” and to a productive post-mining land-use, such as wildlife habitat or forestry. It is agreed that a self-sustaining ecosystem, similar to that of the undisturbed surrounding area, would be characterized by autonomous ecological processes, such as hydrological and nutrient cycles. A restored hydrological cycle would reduce water infiltration through vegetative uptake and evapotranspiration, and the vegetation would also reduce soil erosion, resulting in reduced AMD and sedimentation. A restored nutrient cycle is required to sustain the reintroduced vegetation without constant human intervention. Though Molycorp agrees about what constitutes a self-sustaining ecosystem, it has its own, rather eccentric, ideas about how to restore one, coming up (in the recent Closeout/Closure Plan produced by its consultants URS) with what they describe as an ‘adaptive’ and we call a minimalist strategy. Molycorp appears confident about its ability to achieve a lot with very little – little soil formation or amendment, working on slopes that remain extremely steep. At a revegetation workshop put on by Amigos Bravos and the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited, nationally-renowned revegetation expert Rich Prodgers told us about the ‘school of hard knocks’ – the numerous failures hardrock mines have experienced in revegetating their moonscape sites of exposed, acidic rock, severe slopes and non-existent soils. Hubris is one of the great dangers in reclamation: a willingness to learn, and minute attention to detail, are vital if revegetation is to have any chance of success. Yet Molycorp – deliberately it seems – has provided as few details as possible. Numerous requests for adequate detail during the recent For example, Molycorp has applied for a variance of the requirement that it restore a self-sustaining ecosystem in the subsidence area above its underground mining operation. The evidence is that such areas remain unstable for years after mining ceases, making reclamation difficult or impossible. In order to get a renewed permit and continue mining, Molycorp needs either a variance (which would undermine the Mining Act) or to demonstrate its ability to restore the subsidence area. The failure to produce an adequate restoration plan jeopardizes either the public interest (through creating wide exceptions to the Mining Act) or their own future mining operations (if the variance is not granted). Similarly for the ‘non acid-generating’ (NAG) cover needed to cap the waste rock dumps, reducing infiltration and providing a medium for In fact, when it comes to the nitty gritty Molycorp is showing rather less optimism about its reclamation abilities than it purports elsewhere. Specific criteria for a NAG cover, being formulated by the state Mining & Minerals Division to guarantee a self-sustaining ecosystem, include a requirement that it have a pH of no lower than 5.5 (moderately acidic). Molycorp prefers 4.7, a significantly acidic level which would contribute metal-laden sediment in runoff and thus pollute surface water, and is adamantly opposed by the state Environment Department on those grounds. The overall impression is that Molycorp will nickel-and-dime on every aspect of its reclamation responsibilities. This is not the proactive attitude needed to overcome the reclamation ‘school of hard knocks’, and may well be self-defeating. For example, if revegetation proves inadequate and the cover medium is therefore lost through erosion, it will have to be replaced at great expense. Minimalist revegetation would be a false economy. Another example illustrates both Molycorp’s lack of preparation and how self-defeating its gut instinct to minimize spending may be. During its recent Alternatives Evaluation in preparation for the Closeout Plan, it asserted that “the option of regrading this lower slope [along the waste rock dumps] is not considered practical because of the limited added benefit in comparison to the extremely high cost of construction.” In a subsequent cost analysis by Mining & Minerals it turned out that leaving this unresloped angle-of-repose band would be just as costly as removing it, because material removed above the band would now have to be trucked, rather than tipped, to the lower fill areas. Molycorp’s failure to notice this point does not suggest a high level of engineering, or economic, sophistication. The company’s failure to prepare adequately for the closeout hearing has left Amigos Bravos, and we believe the regulators, with no option. It is overwhelmingly in the public interest (see box below) that reclamation should be done fully and professionally. Half-measures and short-cuts will not only fail to meet the Mining Act requirements, but prove just as costly through attempts to remedy the failures. Amigos Bravos calls on the regulators to insist on high standards for reclamation that realize the huge public benefits of full restoration and meet the public requirements set out in the Mining Act. Given the appalling lack of information and analysis provided by Molycorp so far, the finalized permit will need to formally incorporate supervised processes for information gathering, testing and monitoring until a satisfactory reclamation plan is put together. The regulators should set conservatively high reclamation standards, until such time as Molycorp demonstrates that a lower standard is sufficient. If the company is to be taken seriously as a reclamation concern, the onus is now on them.
Molycorp vs. Reason and the public Interest
As we come to the final round of the heavyweight slugging match between Molycorp/Unocal and the people of New Mexico over the cleanup of the Questa molybdenum mine, the corporate team have resorted to some interesting new tactics: not so much below-the-belt hitting as extended periods of ducking and weaving, or failing that declining to leave the safety of their own corner and even engage in the contest – while out of the ring the manager is lobbying for wholesale changes to the rules even as the match is about to conclude. This is one way of avoiding a knockout blow, we suppose, though it might have been better for everyone if they had accepted honorable defeat and actually got to work on the cleanup iss
negotiating process, in response to minimal information and unjustified assertion, were met with delaying tactics – until it became clear that proper plans would not be available before the Mining Act hearing. This leaves several major issues far from resolution.
revegetation. Molycorp has failed to demonstrate that adequate quantities of such materials are available, or how to amend the acidic cover material with lime if they are not. And again on revegetation: their lamentable track record of revegetation success in miniature test plots, even in the most favorable circumstances (such as on flat areas, rather than angle-of-repose slopes) gives no confidence that the future will be better.
an Inventory
Performed by two University of New Mexico professors and the Ecology & Law Institute, the study addresses both the market (directly-priced) and non-market (survey-based) benefits indicated by Amigos Bravos’ Full Reclamation Plan written by CSPP in 2000. As well as the value of the direct jobs in mine reclamation (around 100 for some ten years, tapering off thereafter) and of the materials and services required, the regional model used to track linkages throughout the regional economy shows a remarkable multiplier effect, as rising property values, an enhanced tourist and recreational industry, and all the accompanying goods, services and business taxes are taken into account. The tried-and-tested model, developed by leading environmental economists, produces a value from full mine restoration to the regional economy of $639 million to $874 million over the twenty years during which most of the restoration will take place. In addition, there are non-market benefits from the value added to public (non-priced) goods. These derive from the ‘consumer surplus’ that the relevant population would obtain through full restoration – the value they would obtain above what they would actually pay in the market, as revealed in carefully designed surveys. The preliminary results indicate a non-market value of some $5.8 million for a restored Red River public fishery, and an ‘existence value’ (reflecting the value people place on just knowing that environmental values exist) of $7.3 million – the value the New Mexico Amigos Bravos believes that the magnitude of these estimated benefits to the regional economy and the population of New Mexico should be influential in forthcoming government decisions about the level of reclamation required. Our figures indicate that full and successful restoration will have benefits that far outweigh the costs. Molycorp has benefited substantially over the years at the public expense – now is the time to start paying back the favor.
Molycorp’s economic justifications for its reclamation plans have been as sketchy as the plans themselves. In this relative vacuum, Amigos Bravos has performed its own first-cut economic analysis of the benefits of proper mine reclamation.
population as a whole would place upon seeing one of its most beautiful areas restored to its former glory. In all, restoring the ecological and public health of the area through mine reclamation is valued at $35 million or more in non-market benefits alone.
Amigos Bravos members and stalwart volunteers David and Karen Douglas are suing Molycorp and its consultants for negligently allowing their drinking water to be contaminated with heavy metals. The suit was filed August 14th in Taos by Masry and Vititoe, the west coast law firm that employs Erin Brokovich.
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