WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 18, 2024) — The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s passage of bipartisan legislation that will speed the cleanup of abandoned hardrock mines, which can poison nearby streams and waterways, edges the bill just steps away from becoming law. The committee's vote sending the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act to the full U.S. House of Representatives follows the Senate’s passage of a companion bill earlier this year.

“The bipartisan vote to pass this ‘Good Samaritan’ bill will help conservation organizations and other community groups consign the toxic legacy of abandoned hardrock mines to the history books. The dangerous runoff from these mines poisons clean drinking water, fish, and other wildlife and threaten the lives and livelihoods of people living nearby and downstream,” said David Willms, associate vice president for public lands at the National Wildlife Federation. “This good idea is decades overdue, and we urge the full U.S. House of Representatives to send this bipartisan bill to the president’s desk.”

U.S. Representatives Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) and Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) introduced the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act in the House; U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) introduced the companion bill in the Senate.