David Hockney, with the US EPA Office of Deserts, Mountains, and Plains, provided an introduction to the
Good Samaritan Remediation of Hardrock Mines Act of 2024 which was passed on December 17, 2024. Under this legislation, EPA is tasked with establishing a 7-year pilot program, where EPA may issue up to 15 permits to allow outside parties (Good Samaritans) to remediate mine residue at abandoned hardrock mine sites to protect human health and the environment without being subject to enforcement or liability.
OMDP is currently in the information-gathering stage of developing a guidance document for the pilot project. They have invited tribes to weigh in during this stage. They will also invite tribes to comment on the guidance document once they have put it out for public comments sometime in the next six months or so. The OMDP team posed the following seven questions:
- What are your experiences with Good Samaritan efforts: lessons learned, current efforts, and/or ideas moving forward?
- What is an eligible Good Sam site? Are there sites with Tribal interest that might make a good pilot site?
- Who pays for the cleanup and what would it take for a Tribe to be involved?
- What special Tribal considerations should we consider as we develop guidelines and application instructions?
- How can we help Tribes or Tribal sites be successful applicants to the program?
- Are you interested in helping us develop guidelines to ensure Tribal concerns are addressed, Tribes are involved, and sites of interest to Tribes are included?
- Who else should EPA talk to? What meetings or conferences should we attend?
