The Horror that is the Montana Legislature has apparently voted the new cyanide leach mining bill (SB 306) through to the governor — despite the fact the state’s voters had twice specifically voted to do away with new cyanide leach mining operations (which are notorious for springing leaks and leaving messes for the taxpayers to clean up).

Wayne at Willfishforwork.com lays out all the murky details and ugly bedfellows, and if you don’t want to stare into that dark too long, simply do this:

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

Now, more from Willfishforwork:

What they don’t tell you is that the Golden Sunlight operation has already puked 19 million gallons (yeah, whoa! I didn’t even remember it being that big and that’s just what the legislature was probably hoping) on the surrounding landscape already (yes, that would be the Jefferson river very nearby). That whole fiasco was promptly cleaned up by the last republican led legislature, and I believe the governor at the time was republican Marc Racicot. Not that I’m implicating anyone, just sayin’.

But that’s all in the past right? WRONG!

….

And of course there is the issue of all the mines that might utilize this new cyanide leach for hire operation. Of course these will need to be new permitted operations. Currently there is only one possible customer for such an operation and that would be Dutch Gold Resources that is currently confirming test holes on a claim at the upper end of Rock Creek.[ed: emphasis mine] Life is full of coincidences isn’t it. But that doesn’t mean it would be limited to just that claim of course, it’s highly probable that in the current gold market that there might be many more claims that could be permitted if there is the potential to turn a profit. Basically, the potential gold bearing areas of Montana could end up looking like a maze with little blocks of Swiss cheese at their centers.

Wayne comes to what is not a surprising conclusion:

Now if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Montana SB 306 looks like a full blown mining bill that leaves the taxpayers in the same place with mining operations that they have always been- picking up the tab. Jobs? There are no jobs here, just a huge liability for more mining cleanups, legal litigation, infrastructure liabilities and a tortured landscape that taxpayers will have to live in and pay for while the mining companies take the profit elsewhere.

Those directions again?

Write Montana’s governor and tell him you’re tired of the taxpayers being put on the hook for operations which diminish the state’s recreational value to anglers and cause job losses when anglers stay home.

email: governor@mt.gov

See you online, Tom Chandler

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