Miller and Assembly revise ancient mining act
By John Trent, Outpost contributor
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Environmental chemist mixes science, politics |
"By that time, it was clear Nevada needed a Reclamation Act," says Miller, an environmental chemist at UNR. So Vivian Freeman was my assemblywoman. She drew up a memorandum of what a reclamation bill would be. They developed a Mining Act and a Reclamation Act that was reasonable. I got very much involved into it.
"During the legislative session (in 1989) it got rather interesting. Because the environmental community, through Vivian, had introduced legislation, the mining industry introduced its own Reclamation Act which was, frankly, incredibly weak. I got kind of huffy, because I thought it was Newmont (Mining Co., one of the country's largest mining companies with strong ties in Nevada) that was trying to kill our bill. I was getting huffy, and I told a friend of mine, 'Next time Newmont tries to build an out-house, they're going to have a write an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before they do it.' But I got a call from them, and they told me they wanted to support our bill.
"I have to admit, they were very instrumental in negotiating the language in the bill. They were clearly coming at it from a mining industry perspective. But they wanted something that was defensible, that would meet a standard that Newmont as the major mining company in Nevada could tell the rest of the country that, 'Yes, Nevada does have a mining law that is a reasonable mining law.' This is what ours was.
"Ultimately, the bill passed, with some interaction with the mining industry as well as some strong political support - Senator Ernie Adler was instrumental in its passing. The Division of Environmental Protection ultimately developed the regulations. So a lot of different perspectives were involved.
"Even though it got very vitriolic during the days during the session, I still to this day love the commercials you see on TV. They're probably a little bit overblown - they show a deer and the voice-over talks about how wonderful the mining industry thinks Nevada's reclamation is. I mean, I would've loved to go back to 1989 and predicted that eight years in the future, the mining industry would not only be extolling this not only as an example nationally, but in the world as the ultimate in reclamation acts."
Freeman also has a distinctive memory of that legislative session: "More than once, Glenn brought his students from UNR to watch this process in action. I was very impressed by this. Not only was he helping with the scientific aspect of the bill, but he was also still finding time to be an educator - to show his students that this is how things are done. You'd look out into our chambers, and there would be Glenn and his class of chemistry students, sitting and watching every move we'd make."
Posted Jan. 29, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost
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