Mining on National Park Service Lands--What Is at Stake?

The Mining in the Parks Act prohibited further mineral exploration in six National Park Service (NPS) areas and placed environmental restrictions on development of existing mining claims in these areas. The act also required the Secretary of the Interior to submit to Congress studies of the environmental consequences of mining in these areas accompanied by estimated acquisition costs of mining claims. GAO reviewed the adequacy of the reports submitted and looked at the NPS management of present mining operations in the park areas and the Department of the Interior's analysis of the mineral policy implications of the act.

GAO found that Interior's reports do not provide Congress with the information that it needs to weigh the environmental effects of mining against the cost of acquiring claims in the NPS areas. The environmental reports on mining in Death Valley and Glacier Bay National Monuments are so vague that they are of little use for determining the possible environmental impacts of mining in these areas. They contain little or no discussions of the steps that could be taken to minimize adverse impacts and thereby lessen the need to acquire certain mining claims. Additionally, the acquisition cost estimates submitted to Congress to purchase certain mining claims were not supported by sufficient documentation and were unreliable and misleading. As a result, much disagreement exists as to the worth of the mining claims recommended for acquisition. Further, GAO found that Interior did not perform a thorough analysis of the need and costs of acquiring mineral properties in Death Valley and Glacier Bay National Monuments. GAO believes that the recommendations based on the environmental data submitted to Congress by Interior for the acquisition of the properties could result in court awards substantially in excess of Interior's acquisition cost estimates. In addition, GAO found that Interior has not adequately analyzed the mineral policy implications of the act. Therefore, the potential long-term effects on mineral resources remains unanswered.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John W. Sprague Team: General Accounting Office: Energy and Minerals Division Phone: (202) 512-7783