Public Lands

GAO evaluated how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) carries out its mining claim recording and environmental protection responsibilities under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, focusing on BLM procedures for ensuring that: (1) it gets enough information to determine the location and validity of mining claims on federal lands; and (2) mined lands are adequately reclaimed once mining activity ends. GAO conducted its work at 10 BLM offices in western states, where most of the mining activity within BLM jurisdiction occurs.

GAO found that: (1) while all 10 BLM offices review claims to ensure that claim holders have provided adequate location information, not all of the offices check to ensure that claims include a map or geographic reference; (2) some BLM officials believe that a map or geographic reference is necessary to adequately establish a claim's location; and (3) in cases where BLM does not adequately check location information, it may be unable to obtain further information from claim holders, if necessary. GAO also found that: (1) BLM failed to inspect more than half of the mining sites that began operations in 1981 to determine whether they had been adequately reclaimed; (2) of the sites BLM inspected, 39 percent had not been reclaimed at the time of inspection; (3) there were a number of sites in the 10 states which showed varying degrees of environmental damage, including deep trenches, open pits, and improperly disposed waste; and (4) while BLM can require mine operators to post bonds to cover the costs of reclamation, it only does so for operators with a record of noncompliance.

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.

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