Bob's Mining Oversight and Accountability Commission testimony

 

Below is public testimony our executive director Bob Fulkerson delivered before the Mining Oversight and Accountability Commission this morning:
 
 
December 20, 2011
TO: Mining Oversight Advisory Committee Members
FR: Bob Fulkerson, PLAN
RE: First Meeting
 

First of all, thank you for your service to Nevada.


The Mining Oversight and Accountability Committee: The words “Accountability” and “Oversight” say it all. MOAC was established to stop the piecemeal approach to oversight of the mining industry in Nevada. As such, MOAC has authority to coordinate the oversight roles of the Bureau of Mines, Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Taxation, Nevada Division of Industrial Relations and, hopefully, the Division of Water Resources.


A mining lobbyist friend of mine told me “all you want to do is shut down the mining industry.” It’s sad that anyone who has a critique of the mining industry gets labeled “anti-mining.” We want Nevadans to have those high-paying mining jobs! But we want to ensure that the highly profitable, multi-national mining corporations that are running the mines do so as safely and as environmentally friendly as possible while paying their fare share of revenues to our state.


As a first step, MOAC should undertake an inventory on the cumulative impacts of the industry on Nevada, including mine safety, toxic releases to air, land and water, dewatering, costs of cleanup, and revenue generation. This comprehensive study could help inform your decisions on the most sensible and effective long-term solutions to ameliorating the impacts of the industry on our state. If we don’t not have all of this information, that is indeed part of a larger problem, which is precisely why this commission was created.


The information and analysis this commission generates related to mining accountability can then lead you and the Legislature to develop workable solutions in the best interests of the industry and the people of Nevada.


The long-term, cumulative environmental impacts of the mining industry in Nevada have never been quantified. This Commission should undertake such an effort. For example, the mining industry produced 97 percent of all the toxic releases in our state in 2010. How long can Nevada sustain these emissions, and what are the impacts? Massive pit lakes containing degraded water will be left behind for centuries or longer. What are the plans for monitoring and ensuring public safety after the mining corporations have left? Are there sufficient funds to manage these sites in perpetuity? And how will the state manage superfund sites in Yerington and on the Comstock?


Worker safety is also a highly relevant topic for this commission. The Commission should undertake a study to find out how many people have died, how many injuries have workers sustained, and the amount and nature citations that have been issued by federal and state regulators. Is there a patter of worker injuries and death that the state needs to address? For example:


•  According to the Elko Daily Free Press, “three gold miners died in Nevada in 2008, compared with two miners in 2007 and a zero death toll in 2006. The highest number of deaths at Nevada mines in recent years occurred in 1999, when nine miners died.”
(Source:  http://elkodaily.com/mining/article_8631ee1c-249c-5dd4-8511-f41164a4830c.html#ixzz1cNR9DRUi )


•  At one Barrick mine alone (Meikle Mine in Carlin) a total of seven workers have died since 1994. In the most recent fatalities, which occurred August 12, 2010, Mine Safety and Health Administration faulted managers for negligence.
 

•  In May, 2011, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) ordered Barrick to pay a $70,000 fine for violating worker safety at its Goldstrike mine in Eureka county.


•  In November, 2011, MSHA cited Jerritt Canyon Mill, finding that 13 of the 14 actions against the mill concerned "significant and substantial" violations that could result in serious injury or illness. MSHA issued orders to withdraw miners from certain areas of the mine.


We don’t mean to impugn the efforts of the mining industry to prioritize worker health and safety ahead of anything else. But MSHA’s figures are disturbing: Between 1990 and 1999, 34 of the nation's 62 gold mine fatalities occurred in Nevada. Of the 589 mining fatalities that occurred from 2000 to 2008, the highest number of metal/nonmetal mine fatalities occurred in Nevada (26). The record suggests more study is warranted.


Regarding mining employment, why has there been 16% decline in direct mining employment from 2008 (14,600) to 2010 (12,210), even as the price of gold has been rising? According to the Nevada Mining Association’s 2009 Economic Overview, the mining industry directly employed 14,470 people in 2007, and 14,600 people in 2008. But then there was a sharp decrease in jobs, down to 11,609 people in 2009. However, that same year, gold increased to $972 per ounce in 2009, almost $100 higher than in 2008.

 
Despite the increase in Gold prices, there was a dramatic decrease in direct employment. The Nevada Mining Association claims the mining industry is creating jobs, yet it appears there were 3,000 less jobs as gold increased more than $100 per ounce. What contributed to this decrease in employment, and are the mines actually creating the jobs they have promised?


I ran into State Demographer Jeff Hardcastle this morning. He said mines in the Elko area are planning on 3,000 or more new jobs in the mining industry. But the lack of housing and skilled workers is hampering efforts to fill those jobs. Perhaps this commission could lend ideas to ameliorating these shortfalls so more Nevadans can work.


Finally, the Commission should make a determination about whether mining deserves to be singled out in the Nevada Constitution for special tax protections. More than $20 billion worth of our precious non-renewable resources were mined last year. For this privilege, the mining industry paid--after a recent tax refund of $8.1 million—less than $200 million in state and local taxes. By comparison, Nevada’s entire gaming industry, which directly employs more than 10 times as many people and brought 50 million visitors to our state last year, grossed less than half that amount, yet paid nearly 5 times what mining paid in taxes.


To conclude, once the Commission has a clear, comprehensive analysis of the scope Nevada’s mining industry, it should develop recommendations or relevant legislation that will make Nevada’s mining industry the cleanest and safest in the world, which no longer escapes paying its fair share of revenues.

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