Committee hears bill to divert $500,000 annually for CR Kendall mine reclamation and treatment

Representative Jerry Schillinger told the Senate Natural Resources Committee that House Bill 58, requested by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), is needed to address ongoing reclamation and water treatment at the CR Kendall mine in Fergus County. He said the Kendall site requires continued treatment and that bond proceeds for reclamation have been exhausted. "The need for ongoing water treatment at C. R. Kendall will continue for the foreseeable future," Schillinger said.

Dan Walsh, DEQ's division administrator for air, energy and mining, and Katie Garson Forba, bureau chief for Superfund, abandoned mine lands and construction, explained that the bill would revise the distribution of existing abandoned-mine funding so that $500,000 annually of the $600,000 currently directed to metal mine reclamation projects could be used for CR Kendall for the next 13 years. Walsh noted the statutory transfer of $1,200,000 each fiscal year from the Orphan Share Fund to the Environmental Quality Protection Fund would remain subject to availability; language in the bill adds "if sufficient funds remain" to address a past audit finding.

Walsh walked the committee through a handout showing multiple funding sources for abandoned mine reclamation and said the proposed transfer would not "detract from other hard rock abandoned mine land work" because of an influx of federal money that will support other projects through 2038. Montana Trout Unlimited and other proponents voiced support for the change as a fiscally responsible approach. Representative Schillinger and DEQ asked the committee to concur; no committee vote was recorded during the hearing.