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. Virgil McConnell Sr., a tribal elder, asked the companyand BLM to hold off until a full cultural survey is done.Otherwise,Pegasus will just pay somebody to come in and say nothing s there. 35The concept of a negative declaration was creeping into the discourseover environmental compliance.Gender also was on the agenda.The Women in Mining groupthat lobbied Congress against the Bumpers and Rahall bills was thefirst wave.California Mining Association President Carolyn Clark leda fast-paced information blitz in Washington.Clark found legislatorsclearly impressed by the first wave.She observed that mining has theimage of a male, two-piece blue suit type raping the land. Now forthe first time, legislators heard from women working at mine operationswho were paid well to drive trucks and could support their children onwhat they earned. These women were real people who got their atten-tion.The CEO s brought another point of view.It was a perfect comple-ment. 36 The blitz had rolled out surprise weapons.The blitz in Washington paralleled a slower offensive offshore.TheWall Street Journal noted that U.S.mining corporations were movingsouth and finding that permits to mine took a day compared with themonths or years in the States. As existing mines play out, the compa-nies are leaving the U.S.with the blessing, if not open encouragement,of the Clinton administration and Congress, which are proposing evenstiffer environmental regulations and new royalties on metals on publiclands, the Journal reported.Looking at the situation in Washingtonstate and Bolivia, the environmental record was quite a contrast.Environmental groups stalled exploration and mining at every turn inWashington, but in Bolivia mining corporations were lauded for theirenvironmental record.Philip Hocker, the president of the Mineral 158 / Chapter 14Policy Center, agreed that the big U.S.and Canadian companies gener-ally followed good environmental practices abroad.Yet he remained skeptical of smaller companies, especially those with bad environmen-tal records in the U.S. 37Those pesky polluting prospectors and their small company succes-sors grew larger in the discourse over mining law reform.The MineralPolicy Center released its Burden of Gilt report outlining a century ofenvironmental damage caused by mining.The Mineral Resource Alliancepiggybacked on a news conference called by California CongressmanGeorge Miller and Mineral Policy Center President Phi Hocker inWashington, D.C.The alliance offered a rebuttal focused on presentenvironmental records of mining company stewardship and potentiallost jobs.In the last analysis, the alliance favored environmentally sen-sitive and responsible mining operations and consistent enforcement ofregulations. 38 The discourse now included balanced enforcement in aregulatory world.On July 17, 1993, tribal leaders joined environmentalists from theMineral Policy Center and the Montana Environmental InformationCenter in a four-mile walk to demonstrate against the Pegasus GoldMine expansion.The Fort Belknap Reservation representativesincluded Red Thunder and Island Mountain Protectors.Three Indianspiritual leaders offered prayers and spoke with television and localnewspaper media.Keeper of the Gros Ventre Flat Pipe said that theminers don t realize what they are doing.They are hollow men. 39 Thespirits of the mountains did not move the miners, but the Indians andenvironmentalists hoped an Environmental Impact Statement wouldhalt their movement.News of mining disasters past and present dotted the western news.The Crystal River of Colorado ran black from time to time because ofcoal mining.40 A million tons of arsenic- and lead-laden tailings gracedTriumph, Idaho, bringing out a Superfund designation.41 Awarenessincreased as mining reform measures inched through Congress.By autumn the California Desert Protection Act had movedthrough the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee witheleven changes.Yet Bill Tilden, the chairman of the Desert Conservation The Continuing Attack on Mining Law of 1872 / 159Institute, expressed disappointment that the recommendations of reduc-ing the protected acreage by six hundred thousand acres were rejected infavor of a mere thirty thousand acres.Tilden maintained that the miningindustry did not oppose desert protection.Rather, it wanted a balancedapproach with environmental and economic factors protected.42While lobbyists were working their magic in Washington, minerson the ground were painting a new picture of Alkali Ike.Congress hadchanged the mandatory annual work assessment into a $100 per claimrental fee administered by the BLM.August 31, 1993, was the deadlinefor paying the fee.By the fall, the numbers were in, and the claimsnow abandoned were astounding except to miners.Nevada claim hold-ers abandoned 140,000 claims.In Idaho twenty-six thousand of fifty-seven thousand claims fell to nonpayment.In sum, 480,000 of aboutone million claims were now open for location by others.43 Reactionto the deflation of claims was mixed.Bill Mote, the executive directorof the Northwest Mining Association, saw serious mining shortagesin the future. Patricia Holmberg, the president of the IndependentMiners Association, offered that the reform is a disaster for smallminers. Despite the fact that the law exempts miners with fewer thanten claims, Holmberg said that small miners held more than ten claimsand it was simply a matter of whether a family is going to have foodon the table. Glenn Miller, a professor of environmental and resourcesciences at the University of Nevada, Reno, thought the fee was a goodfirst step. He offered that miners have always had an unbelievablefree ride: free administration, free land, free minerals.If the land isworth anything to them, they should be willing to pay the fee. 44 EldenHughes of the San Francisco Sierra Club e-mailed Rose Strickland andothers in November 1992, observing that Robert Sanregret, Exec.Dir.Of National Assoc.of Mining Districts.[his] statement is a very can-did admission that the $100 assessment work was never being done. 45Common knowledge in some quarters was public knowledge as thelocations were again public lands.If miners would pay the $100 fee,perhaps they would pay a royalty.The royalty loomed larger when the House of Representatives voted316 108 on the Rahall bill.That bill called for an 8 percent royalty on the 160 / Chapter 14gross production of mines, abolished the patenting of claims, createdreclamation standards, and gave administrative agencies the power todeclare portions of public lands off-limits based on suitability for min-ing
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