KUNR: Abandoned Mine Report (2008-07-28)

Date: July 22, 2008

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

AUDIT REPORT

Memorandum

To: C. Stephen Allred
Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management

Lyle Laverty
Assistant Secretary, Fish, Wildlife and Parks

From: Earl E. Devaney//signed//
Inspector General

Subject: Final Audit Report, Abandoned Mine Lands in the Department of the Interior
(No. C-IN-MOA-0004-2007)

This final report presents the results of our audit of abandoned mine lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service (NPS). We visited approximately 45 areas with abandoned mines from March 2007 through April 2008 and talked to over 75 employees from 13 BLM offices and 5 national parks.
We concluded that BLM and NPS are putting the public's health and safety at risk by not addressing hazards posed by abandoned mines on their lands. Although NPS has been more effective at protecting the public, there are still many more sites that need to be mitigated. Mines located on BLM and NPS lands primarily in the western states of California, Arizona, and Nevada have dangerous physical safety and serious environmental hazards. We identified abandoned mines where members of the public had been killed, injured, or exposed to dangerous environmental contaminants. Growth of the population and use of off-road vehicles in the West will increase the likelihood of additional deaths or injuries.
We received responses on the draft audit report from BLM and NPS. BLM stated that it accepted the recommendations and would work diligently to implement them. However, BLM disagreed with our overall conclusion that BLM has an ineffective abandoned mine land program that has been undermined, neglected and marginalized. After considering the response, our overall conclusion concerning BLM's program remains the same. NPS generally accepted our findings and recommendations and indicated that it would implement the recommendations. Where necessary, we made changes to the report to address BLM's and NPS' specific comments. Detailed analyses of the responses are included in Appendices E and F of the report.

Please provide us with your written response to this report by August 21, 2008. The response should provide the information required in Appendix G. Please address your response to:

Mr. Robert Romanyshyn
Assistant Inspector General for Audits
U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Inspector General
1849 C Street, NW, MS 4428
Washington, D.C. 20240

The legislation, as amended, creating the Office of Inspector General requires that we report to the Congress semiannually on all audit report issued, actions taken to implement our recommendations, and recommendations that have not been implemented.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this report, please call me at (202) 208-5745.

RESULTS IN BRIEF

We are gravely concerned that the Department of the Interior (DOI or Department) has put the public's health and safety at risk by not addressing hazards posed by abandoned mines on federal lands. Mines located primarily in the western states of California, Arizona, and Nevada have dangerously dilapidated structures, serious environmental hazards, and gaping cavities - some capable of swallowing an entire vehicle.

During our audit, we identified serious environmental and safety hazards where members of the public had been killed, injured, or exposed to dangerous environmental contaminants. A number of adults and children have fallen to their deaths over the past several decades due to hazards associated with abandoned mines. The potential for more deaths and injuries is ominous. Growth of the population and use of off-road vehicles in the West will increase the likelihood of additional deaths or injuries.

We focused our audit of abandoned mines on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service (NPS) lands because the majority of abandoned mines are located there. We visited approximately 45 areas with abandoned mines from March 2007 through April 2008 and talked to over 75 employees from 13 BLM offices and 5 national parks.

At several BLM sites we visited, we found dangerous levels of environmental contaminants, such as arsenic, lead, and mercury - easily accessible to visitors and local residents, often without their knowledge. We also found instances of trespassing at abandoned BLM mine sites, including residential and commercial development on the land.

Even more disturbing, we found that BLM supervisors told staff to ignore these problems, and employees were criticized or received threats of retaliation for identifying contaminated sites. One employee stated that adding sites to an inventory list and declaring them unsafe was more detrimental to BLM because doing so acknowledged a hazard and a potential liability.

While BLM has the clear majority of abandoned mine sites on DOI lands, we found that it has an ineffective program to address them. BLM's abandoned mines program has long been undermined, neglected, and marginalized by poor management practices and insufficient staffing and resources.

We found that NPS has mitigated many of its high-risk, easily accessible abandoned mine sites; however, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sites that still need to be addressed. At one park, the abandoned mine inventory includes over 600 sites, and NPS officials have inspected less than half of the sites on the 1.4 million acres comprising the park. While NPS has a more effective program, current funding for NPS' abandoned mines program is inadequate to address these hazards, and NPS has failed to develop a credible estimate of the total cost of mitigation.

We believe that working in consort, BLM and NPS would make greater strides toward a solution for abandoned mines than doing so independently. The agencies should explore opportunities to share resources, expertise, and best practices to improve their programs.

While the expense of cleaning up abandoned mine sites is a concern, with figures estimated in the billions, we believe simple precautions can easily be taken at the most dangerous sites, including posting warning signs and building fences. At environmentally contaminated sites, staff can reduce air and water-borne contamination through dust control with sprinklers and temporary covers.

The overall solution for cleaning up abandoned mines is not simple. It calls for a complex and concerted effort on the part of the Department, including the immediate mitigation of known hazardous sites, a calculated effort to identify and inventory unknown sites, a methodical design to address abandoned mines comprehensively, and a strategy to secure the necessary funding for this costly endeavor.

The findings from this audit paint a picture of compelling urgency, which should trigger a swift call to action by both the Department and Congress. We are providing recommendations designed to help develop a comprehensive solution to this multi-faceted problem, not of DOI's making, but now, certainly, in the Department's realm of responsibility.

BACKGROUND

Since the 1850s, mining of hard rock minerals such as gold, silver, copper, and lead has been an important part of the economy of the Western United States. Congress passed the General Mining Law of 1872, which established a process to allow individuals to explore, claim, and mine public lands containing mineral deposits. The General Mining Law required little mitigation of physical and environmental hazards created by mining activities. In 1976, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy Management Act that enhanced federal management of mining activity and its safety and environmental effects. However, historical mining activity left hundreds of thousands of unmitigated abandoned mine sites.

Within DOI, the majority of abandoned mine sites are located on lands managed by BLM, primarily in Arizona, Nevada, and California. Typically, no mining operations have been conducted at these sites for many years, although valid mining claims may still exist. The vast majority of abandoned mine sites on NPS lands are located in the California desert area of the Pacific West Region. The California desert area, specifically Death Valley National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and Joshua Tree National Park, contains most of the mine hazards on NPS land.

Many abandoned mine sites present an immediate danger of physical injury or death due to open vertical shafts and horizontal adits (entrances to a mine) and mill sites with deteriorating buildings and equipment. Dangers include deadly gases and asphyxiation, collapsing mine walls, explosive and toxic chemicals, and rotting structures. Physical hazards require the least funding to fix or mitigate and the least expertise to identify and evaluate. Mitigation can range from temporary measures including fencing and signs to more costly permanent measures, including steel and concrete covers. The only permanent mitigation action is to fill in shafts and adits and demolish or remove buildings and structures.

Some sites also present long-term dangers to people from exposure to piles of waste rock or mine tailings (mine waste) containing hazardous materials such as arsenic, lead, and mercury. These sites can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to remediate and require extensive expertise to identify, evaluate, and mitigate. Potential sites must be sampled to identify hazardous contamination. Mitigation can include temporary measures such as reducing air and water-borne contamination through dust control with sprinklers and temporary covers. Other temporary measures that can be taken to protect the public at these sites include installing fencing and signs and taking appropriate steps to notify the public of the dangers. Permanent mitigation can include reprocessing of mine tailings to treat contaminants, removal of materials to safer locations, or onsite disposal in a properly designed facility. Clean-up of all significant sites with environmental hazards will cost billions of dollars.

DETAILS OF AUDIT
We visited approximately 45 areas with abandoned mines from March 2007 through April 2008 and talked to over 75 employees from 13 BLM offices and 5 national parks. We also reviewed hundreds of pages of related documents and traveled through California, Arizona, and Nevada for site visits and interviews. Our objective was to determine if BLM and NPS were effectively protecting the public from physical safety and environmental hazards at abandoned hard rock mine sites located on federal lands. The results of our audit are chronicled below.

Injuries and Deaths
Comprehensive records of abandoned mine accidents are not maintained by DOI or its bureaus. However, physical safety hazards continue to result in visitor injuries and deaths. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration identified 33 abandoned mine fatalities between 1999 and 2007 on all public and private lands in the Western United States. We performed a limited search of accident records and found that between 2004 and 2007, at least 12 people were killed in accidents at abandoned mines. We also visited six abandoned mine sites on BLM and NPS land where 7 deaths had occurred since 1984.

At the Keane Wonder Mine in Death Valley National Park, CA, a visitor fell 30 feet down a mine shaft in 1984 and died of massive head injuries. We found that NPS' visitor literature advertised the abandoned site and NPS had signs directing visitors to the area, which had a visitor parking lot. We also found that other mine openings in Death Valley National Park were easily accessible by visitors using park roads and trails. After the death at Keane Wonder, NPS did install a steel net across the opening, but during our visit, we noticed that the net had been vandalized and other nearby openings had no fences or signs.

In 1991, a visitor to the Goat Basin Mine, Barstow Field Office, CA, bypassed a fence around an open mine shaft and attempted to lower himself into the shaft using chains attached to the bumper of his truck. The chains slipped and he fell 200 feet to his death. This type of site is commonly called an ant trap because it has steeply sloping sides that prevent escape if a person begins to slide into the shaft. After the accident, BLM did install a barbed wire fence around the shaft; however, during our site visit, we saw only remnants of the fence and no warning signs. This site was not on BLM's abandoned mine inventory and was not effectively mitigated. According to a BLM official, there are many such openings in the area but BLM has not inventoried these sites and has no plans to mitigate the hazards. After our site visit, we made recommendations to BLM about the safety concerns at the Goat Basin Mine, and BLM took immediate action and erected a fence around the opening.

In 1996, at the American Flat Mill near Virginia City, NV, a teenager died while climbing stairs on his all-terrain vehicle inside the structure. This extremely dangerous, dilapidated structure, which was built in the 1920s, is easily accessible with few fences and is a popular hang-out site for teens. While not documented, a BLM official told us that many other serious injuries have occurred at the site requiring flight-for-life helicopter rescues. BLM has not permanently mitigated the site because of concerns about the mill's historical value.

We found that in Virginia City, NV, a local high school teacher and a friend were killed in 1996 after entering the New Savage Mine. The men ignored a large Keep Out-Bad Air warning sign at the mine entrance, bypassed a fence, and were asphyxiated. The site was subsequently more permanently fenced and closed. The New Savage Mine is one of hundreds of mines near Virginia City.

In 1999, near Beatty, NV, a young girl was killed after she fell into an open mine shaft while attending a BLM-authorized cross-country race. During the race, she wandered away from her family and fell into the mine. During our site visit, BLM staff told us that race organizers, not BLM, were responsible for safety during the race. To expedite the mine closure, local residents back-filled the hole after the accident.

More recently, in 2007, near BLM's Windy Point Recreation Area, Kingman, AZ, a young girl was killed after falling into an open abandoned mine. The girl and her sister were riding an all-terrain vehicle, ran off a trail, and fell into a 125-foot mine shaft. The sister was seriously injured and spent the night in the mine before being rescued. The shaft is on a small privately owned parcel surrounded by BLM property. BLM maintains a nearby campground and a road leading to the area where the death occurred. A barbed-wire fence, provided by BLM, and warning signs were erected around the abandoned mine shaft shortly after the accident.

BLM stated that in light of the hundreds of millions of acres of public lands for which BLM is responsible, some accidents will inevitably take place. While this may be true, it does not relieve BLM from responsibility for taking reasonable steps to prevent injury or death from abandoned mine hazards, especially those hazards that are already known by BLM.

Observations and Hazards on BLM Land

During our site visits to abandoned mines on BLM lands, we observed alarming examples of dangerous mines that continue to pose a threat to the public and the environment. We have highlighted the most distressing examples below.

American Flat Mill

In July 2007, we visited the American Flat Mill site, located near the town of Virginia City, NV, where a teenager died climbing the stairs on his all-terrain vehicle. The mill is a large, two-story, dilapidated concrete structure where ore was processed in the 1920s using cyanide. The site is an extremely dangerous physical safety hazard. It is easily accessible, with few fences, and is a popular party hangout for local teens. Most of the structure has no outside walls and there are large holes in the floors that could easily result in a serious injury or death.

An adjacent mill site was demolished in 2006 after a visitor sustained a serious injury due to a fall. The potentially responsible party performed and paid for the demolition work. Concerning the site, a BLM official said, This is a matter of physical safety. The buildings are a public nuisance and have to be dismantled. There's no reason for this to remain a potentially dangerous site.

To the contrary, in 2006, another BLM official was quoted in the Reno Gazette-Journal saying, Nothing is going to be disturbed at the older [remaining] site. People in the area have a strong connection to it and it's staying just as it is.

Despite the death at the remaining mill and a history of serious site accidents, BLM has not taken effective mitigation actions to protect the public. BLM provided various reasons for inaction, including the site's historical nature, local opposition to demolishing the structure, a lack of funding to perform demolition, and difficulty in restricting site access.

Longstanding hazardous conditions and excessive delays in mitigation at the American Flat Mill site present serious and unacceptable risks to the public health and safety.

Field Office Management

Overall, we found that BLM's abandoned mine lands program has long been neglected, undermined, and marginalized by poor management practices. As a result, public health and safety have been seriously compromised. The program is decentralized, giving operational control and authority to field office managers. BLM has a national abandoned mine lands program coordinator who has developed many policies and procedures for implementing an effective program; however, this coordinator is rendered ineffective, as field office management and staff often ignore the guidance. We also noted many examples of serious unmitigated abandoned mine hazards that were tolerated because program managers discouraged identifying and mitigating these hazards. Specifically, we found the following:

* Employees were discouraged from identifying abandoned mine sites. An employee was told by a field office manager not to identify abandoned mine sites as it got in the way of other land management activities. Another employee stated that putting sites on an inventory was more detrimental to BLM than leaving them off because listing them acknowledged a hazard and therefore created a potential liability.

* Employees were criticized or received threats of retaliation for site identification. An employee who told DOI officials that there were thousands of dangerous abandoned mines within the employee's jurisdiction was subsequently criticized for making such a statement. Several other employees told us management made threats against their careers for raising these issues.

* A BLM Field Office Manager stated that management had never asked him to take samples of potentially contaminated sites.

* Employees did not use warning signs and fences because they considered them ineffective or costly to maintain.

* A BLM official opined that fencing a site was an acknowledgement that BLM knew about the site; and therefore if someone was subsequently injured at the site, BLM could face increased liability.

* BLM management did not allow an employee to formally contact a claimant about dangerous physical hazards at a claim site.

* Employees did not identify and report residential and commercial trespassing at dangerous BLM abandoned mine sites.

BLM is in the process of developing and implementing several new program management initiatives that may enhance the effectiveness of the abandoned mine lands program. These include the Fix a Shaft Today (FAST) program, National Mine Land Inventory prototype, abandoned mine land distance learning program, and a project management handbook. We are encouraged by these efforts.

Staffing

Mitigating BLM abandoned mine sites and making them safe for the public is often neglected because the job is a collateral duty for field office personnel, and there are conflicts with the BLM surface management program responsible for regulating operating mines.

Collateral Duty

According to BLM records, 107 field office employees in California, Nevada, and Arizona charged time to the abandoned mine lands program in 2007. Because the abandoned mine lands program is a collateral duty for most employees, the total time charged to the program for labor accounted for only about 9 full-time employees. We found that many of these employees have never performed simple duties such as posting warning signs and fences, let alone identifying abandoned mine sites.

Conflicting Objectives

Many abandoned mine land field staff are funded primarily by the surface management program. This program is responsible for implementing surface management regulations 43 CFR 3809 concerning minerals exploration and mine operations. This includes approval of proposed mining operations, reclamation, bonding, and inspection and enforcement activities. Some BLM surface management personnel (with collateral abandoned mine land duties) were reluctant to mitigate sites because of potential conflicts with mine claimants and operators who may oppose such mitigation. Mitigating abandoned mines may restrict a claimant's ability to mine minerals that are accessible from abandoned mine openings or located in mine waste piles.

Program Budget and Funding

BLM does not have a dedicated line item identified in its budget for the abandoned mine lands program, and the program's funding needs receive little visibility. As a result, the program is not a priority and has not been allocated sufficient resources to mitigate dangerous abandoned mine sites.

BLM's abandoned mine lands program has been chronically and drastically under-funded. In its abandoned mine lands strategic plan, BLM identified funding needs of about $130 million through fiscal year (FY) 2013 for high-priority sites. Even the identified needs are drastically under-estimated. We found that clean-up of environmental hazards in California's Rand Mining District alone will cost over $170 million, and total costs to mitigate abandoned mine sites bureau-wide could ultimately be billions of dollars. Currently, BLM's abandoned mine lands program receives less than $10 million in annual funding from various sources including appropriations for soil, water and air; hazard management; and resource restoration. Significant progress to permanently address physical safety and environmental hazards at BLM abandoned mine sites will not be achieved unless substantial additional resources are made available.

Even with its current funding, however, BLM should be more effective in protecting the public. BLM could better use existing funds to identify and evaluate abandoned mine sites, post warning signs, and install fences.

Site Trespass

Historical trespass on BLM land is known to exist at many locations throughout the West, according to a BLM official. This trespassing includes commercial activities and residential development on abandoned mine sites on federal land. Two of the abandoned mine sites we visited had residential and commercial development in areas with safety and potential environmental hazards. This residential and commercial trespass hinders BLM's efforts to mitigate sites because of the regulatory and legal delays associated with evicting trespassers and physically removing homes and commercial facilities.

Partnerships with Other Organizations

BLM initiated the Nevada Abandoned Mine Land Environmental Taskforce in March 1999 to address environmental hazards associated with abandoned and inactive mines in Nevada. The taskforce includes 13 federal and state agencies that work together to (1) foster regulatory cooperation, (2) identify priority sites for cleanup, and (3) provide administrative oversight for funded projects. The taskforce allows several agencies to leverage their funding cooperatively to mitigate abandoned mine hazards.

In September 2007, a joint BLM and U.S. Forest Service report was issued titled, Abandoned Mine Lands: A Decade of Progress Reclaiming Hardrock Mines. The report addresses collaborative progress made in protecting and remediating three western watersheds and other environmental and physical safety hazards. Additionally, the report addresses future planned efforts to enhance site inventories, leverage resources, and share technological innovations. We believe this collaborative effort is another example of successful partnerships being utilized by BLM.

The Desert Manager's Group (http://www.dmg.gov) is a regional interagency partnership among federal, state, and local entities that manage California's 20-million-acre desert region. The desert region includes three national parks, 72 wilderness areas, and six military bases and has a large portion of the abandoned mine sites that are located in the Southwest. The Desert Manager's Group has recently kicked off a 5-year effort to form partnerships to leverage funding and mitigate the highest priority abandoned mine sites in the California Desert Region.

In 2006, the Desert Manager's Group began developing the list of abandoned mine sites in the desert region, identifying the capabilities of the different agencies within the Desert Manager's Group and prioritizing the mitigation of abandoned mine sites. The Desert Manager's Group's latest 5-Year Plan for FY 2007 through FY 2011 identifies goals to (1) form partnerships to leverage funding, (2) develop a central database of abandoned mine sites within the desert region, and (3) mitigate the highest priority environmental and physical safety sites.

This collaborative effort among agencies such as BLM, NPS, the Department of Defense, and the State of California could provide a benchmark for maximizing efficiency in mitigating abandoned mine sites.

Prefabricated Materials for Mitigation

At Joshua Tree National Park, NPS has the capabilities to mass produce prefabricated mine covers and gates. This enables a large number of sites to be mitigated economically and efficiently. We believe this approach is a good model that could be expanded within NPS and adopted by BLM.

Utilizing Volunteers to Address Abandoned Mine Issues

We learned that volunteers assist NPS and BLM in identifying and inventorying abandoned mine sites. For example, at Joshua Tree National Park, a retired sheriff helps locate and map abandoned mine sites within the park.

In Nevada, BLM is supported by the state's Division of Minerals, which uses college students to identify and inventory abandoned mine features. BLM has also developed a grassroots effort to mitigate physical hazards using volunteer labor and donated fuel, heavy equipment, and materials.

We believe using volunteers can be beneficial if they are properly trained and supervised.

Site Closures

In August 2006, BLM closed several environmentally contaminated abandoned mine land sites in California to protect the public. These closures included public lands at the Pond, Poore, Gold Run, Poison Lake, Davis, and Longfellow sites located in the California counties of Amador, Placer, Nevada, and Tuolumne. The closure included all forms of entry by the public, including mineral access, and facilitated environmental remediation actions. We believe site closures could be used more often to protect the public.

As it stands, public safety is at risk because physical and environmental hazards at abandoned mine lands have been ignored by DOI for decades. Abandoned mine lands programs in DOI are in need of a firm commitment to protect the public, sustained funding, and dedicated staff.

This report makes 8 recommendations that, if implemented, should help the bureaus address these long-standing issues.

We recommend that the BLM Director do the following:

1. Issue a clear policy statement that:

* Supports the abandoned mine lands program and its goals.
* Forbids retaliation against employees for identifying or reporting abandoned mine sites.
* Requires field-office management and staff to comply with all abandoned mine lands policies and procedures.

2. Employ experienced, trained, full-time staff dedicated to the abandoned mine lands program at the state- and field-office levels in California, Arizona, and Nevada and other states where appropriate.

3. Establish a specific line item in the budget for the abandoned mine lands program and request funding to accomplish project goals identified in the abandoned mine strategic plan.

4. Identify and resolve trespassing on abandoned mine sites and assess and mitigate hazards associated with these sites.

5. Validate existing inventory data and develop procedures for ongoing data collection to ensure that data in the inventory is complete, accurate, and consistent.

We recommend that the NPS Director do the following:

6. Request adequate funding to support program goals and to mitigate sites identified by the abandoned mine lands program.

We recommend that the BLM Director and NPS Director do the following:

7. Implement immediate temporary or permanent measures to mitigate known dangerous sites, including those identified in Appendix A of this report.

8. Explore and exploit opportunities for sharing resources, expertise, and best practices between the agencies to strengthen their abandoned mine lands programs.

BLM Response
OIG Analysis
Recommendations

BLM stated that it accepted all of the recommendations and would work diligently to implement them.

We are encouraged that BLM is committed to implementing the recommendations provided in our report. However, BLM did not provide the detailed information requested on actions taken or planned to implement the recommendations, including target dates and the names of officials responsible for their implementation.

Conclusions Concerning Overall AML Program

BLM was concerned with the broad assertion made in the draft audit report that BLM has an ineffective abandoned mine lands program and that the program has been undermined, neglected and marginalized. BLM felt that the audit focused on some mega-AML sites and hazardous materials sites that had not been addressed as quickly as BLM would have liked because the resources needed to address them exceed available funding. BLM agreed with the conclusion, however, that the program has been underfunded.

BLM stated that it did not agree with our conclusion that the abandoned mine lands program has put the public's health and safety at risk. BLM stated that it has undertaken temporary or interim measures to mitigate health and safety hazards while seeking additional funding to complete the needed remediation.

BLM discussed several new initiatives that it is pursuing at the national level including the Fix a Shaft Today (FAST) program, National Mine Land Inventory prototype, Inventory Project Change Board, AML Distance Learning and the Project Management Handbook.

After considering BLM's comments, we stand by our conclusions concerning the abandoned mine lands program. While we agree that BLM has taken steps to address some hazards within its budget constraints, we are concerned about the large number of unmitigated sites that still exist and pose risk to the public. Even more disturbing, we found that BLM supervisors told staff to ignore these problems, and employees were criticized or received threats of retaliation for identifying contaminated sites.

We continue to conclude that BLM has put the public's health and safety at risk, based on our site visits to about 40 abandoned mine sites in California, Nevada and Arizona. These visits included large contaminated mine sites as well as areas with numerous physical safety hazards. The Rand Mining District is just one example. In this district, residents and off-road vehicle recreationalists were routinely exposed to high levels of arsenic and the district is littered with open mine shafts and other physical hazards that had not been mitigated.

We are encouraged by the new initiatives that BLM is pursuing. Most of these initiatives were new and not fully implemented at the time of our audit.

BLM took exception to our statement that comprehensive records of abandoned mine accidents are not maintained, stating that BLM is not always notified immediately when a death or injury takes place on public land. BLM stated that when notified, it responds by verifying the location of the incident and assessing the site for emergency action. BLM also expressed concern that our including examples of abandoned mine accidents inappropriately suggested that BLM failed to address physical safety hazards on public lands. BLM insisted that it has an active program to identify and address such hazards. Finally, BLM stated that some accidents will inevitably take place in light of the hundreds of millions of acres of lands for which BLM is responsible.

We stand by our conclusion concerning the lack of records on abandoned mine accidents. BLM was unable to provide us with data on such accidents. While we agree that BLM will not be able to prevent all accidents, this fact does not relieve BLM from responsibility for taking reasonable steps to prevent injury or death from abandoned mine hazards, especially those hazards that are already known by BLM to exist. During our site visits, we observed numerous physical hazards that BLM had failed to implement even the most basic precautions, such as fences and signs.

BLM provided additional information regarding actions that it has taken at four sites included in our report:

* Rand Mining District: Provided additional details on work that has been accomplished, including actions taken as a result of our Flash Report, Environmental, Health and Safety Issues at Bureau of Land Management, Ridgecrest Field Office, Rand Mining District, CA.

* American Flat Mill: Clarified facts surrounding the demolition of one structure and reiterated the strong local resistance to the demolition of the remaining structure.

* Barstow: Described actions taken to address hazards that OIG notified BLM of during the audit.

* Caselton Tailings. Clarified facts surrounding the expenditures for constructing a diversion channel and concerning the negotiations for reprocessing of the tailings piles. BLM asserted that the negotiations were in the best interest of the government and the public. Having a third party perform the work would significantly reduce the cost to the government, currently estimated to be between $8 -14 million if done unilaterally by BLM. BLM stated that it had removed all hazardous materials and resolved all chemical and physical safety issues at the dilapidated operations area. Additionally, BLM stated that its scientists concluded that the risk of groundwater contamination was very small.

We made changes to the report to address the clarifications provided by BLM and to provide information on additional actions taken by BLM to address hazards.

Where practical, we support efforts to negotiate with third parties to participate in the mitigation of abandoned mine sites. However, public safety must be the first priority and we are concerned that the public has not been adequately protected from the environmental hazards associated with the Caselton tailings for over a decade while these negotiations have taken place. Concerning the operations area at the Caselton tailings, we observed unlabeled barrels of unknown materials that had been abandoned and remained on the property. We also noted numerous physical safety hazards.

An engineering evaluation conducted on the Caselton tailings stated that a catastrophic release of tailings could severely and intensively impact water quality in Meadow Valley Wash. BLM has indicated to us that the risk of groundwater contamination is very small; however, BLM has never sampled groundwater at the wells downstream of the tailings.

Field Office Management

BLM acknowledged that, as with almost all BLM programs, the abandoned mine lands program has been decentralized to the field office level. Accordingly, the success or failure of the program rests in a large part on the efforts of the Field Office and Field Office Manager. BLM reasoned that because there are well over 12,000 abandoned mine sites in the inventory database, then the vast majority of program managers and staff must be reporting abandoned mine sites. BLM expressed concern that our observations at specific sites were not representative of BLM's program as a whole and that some of the statements we quoted were taken out of context or misinterpreted. BLM stated that threats and intimidation of its employees will not be condoned or tolerated and when it is made aware of these allegations, it will act to investigate and address the matter.

We agree that given the decentralization, the success of the program rests with the field offices. We concluded that many field offices are not succeeding based on our interviews of approximately 65 BLM employees and questionnaire responses from almost all remaining BLM employees with significant abandoned mine lands responsibilities in California, Arizona, and Nevada. These states have more abandoned mine sites than the other western states combined. Our audit highlighted many examples of serious unmitigated abandoned mine hazards that were tolerated because program managers discouraged identifying and mitigating these hazards. We disagree with BLM's assertion that program managers and staff must be reporting sites since there are over 12,000 abandoned mine sites in the inventory. We found that many of the sites listed in the database were obtained from old Bureau of Mines data that was never verified by site visits. We found that many abandoned mine lands site coordinators had never used the database to enter or modify site information.

BLM acknowledged that staff are assigned abandoned mine lands as a collateral duty and that they have multiple and sometimes conflicting goals and objectives. BLM stated that it understood our concern that it use dedicated, full-time staff to deal with abandoned mines and that it would follow through on the staffing recommendations made in the report.

Employing experienced, trained, full-time staff dedicated to the abandoned mine lands program should improve performance and minimize the conflicting goals and objectives.
Program Budget and Funding

BLM acknowledged that current funding sources, even in the aggregate, are insufficient to address the mega-AML sites identified in the report. BLM stated that it will follow through on the recommendations regarding program budgeting. The response provided additional details on the multiple sources of funding that are used for abandoned mines, including funds appropriated for:

* Soil, Water, and Air
* Hazard Management and Resource Restoration
* Central Hazardous Materials Fund
* Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration
* Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act

Establishing a specific line item in the budget for