The Environmental Protection Agency, complying with a court order, will develop a rule to guarantee that companies that mine for minerals in hard rock will pay for needed environmental cleanup, rather than taxpayers.
The announcement Monday comes in the wake of a federal judge’s order in February requiring the EPA to close loopholes that allow some companies to get out of paying for such costly cleanups when they file for bankruptcy.
The agency said it will develop similar financial-responsibility requirements for other types of operations but started with hard-rock mining because of the size of the operations, the amount of waste and the number of mining sites on its Superfund’s national-priorities list.
The EPA didn’t release specifics on how to establish financial-assurance requirements but said it will propose rules by spring 2011.
A national mining trade group said the industry already is regulated by state and federal laws establishing financial responsibility for cleanup.
