All of these messes had to be cleaned up at taxpayer cost - tens of millions of dollars - with the bonus that taxpayers will be paying millions of dollars in perpetuity to treat water from these abandoned mines. Baker was formerly vice president and CFO of Pegasus Gold Inc., which, in 1998, went bankrupt and left abandoned, toxic mining messes across Montana - Zortman-Landusky, Beal Mountain, Basin Creek. Baker Jr., current president and CEO of Idaho-based Hecla Mining Co. So it made perfect sense when, in 2018, the DEQ brought a “Bad Actor” enforcement claim against Phillip S. In short, if a miner fails to clean up his mess, he’s a “Bad Actor” and will not be given the opportunity to create further messes for the taxpayers to clean up in the future. This provision was enacted with bipartisan backing and the support of the mining industry and signed by Gov. The MMRA contains what is known as a “Bad Actor” provision – specifically, the state may not issue a person or company a permit to conduct mining activities, if that person, company or the person’s former company (collectively the miner) failed to complete required mine reclamation, and the miner’s bond is forfeited requiring the state to carry out the reclamation. Sadly, this time it is being brushed aside by the very agency charged with safeguarding Montana’s environment: Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).ĭEQ administers Montana’s Metal Mine Reclamation Act (MMRA). This right has been honored only in the breach by many. In fulfillment of that commitment, the framers proposed, and We the People adopted in Article II, Section 3, our inalienable right to a clean and healthful environment - not as an aspiration, or a gauzy goal - but as one of the fundamental constitutional rights guaranteed to all Montanans.
Testing water quality from the abandoned Zortman-Landusky Mine near the Fort Belknap Reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes
The Preamble to our state’s Constitution speaks to the importance of Montana’s quiet beauty, the grandeur of our mountains, and the vastness of our rolling plains as underpinning our desire to improve our quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations.
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