Editorial: All that’s gold does not glitter

Saturday, March 11, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

State environmental officials have enacted regulations for airborne mercury emissions from gold mining operations, drawing support from the mining industry and the ire of environmentalists.

The state Environmental Commission on Wednesday enacted rules that require mines to better monitor and test for airborne mercury emissions and report the results to the state once a year. Previously, such monitoring and reports were voluntary.

Environmentalists say the new regulations fall short by failing to mandate reductions or set limits on mercury emissions. "The companies are left to monitor themselves. Self-regulation is not enough to protect the health of our communities," Elyssa Rosen of Great Basin Mine Watch told the Associated Press.

An Environmental Protection Agency report says Nevada mines have, over the past 25 years, discharged about 100 tons of mercury into the environment. The substance typically is released during refining processes. Conservation groups say mercury from Nevada's mines has poisoned fish and bird populations in Nevada and in neighboring states such as Idaho and Utah.

Nevada regulators and mining industry officials assert that no link has been proven between Nevada's mines and mercury levels in these other areas. But that doesn't mean that they aren't linked. Leo Drozdoff, administrator of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, told the AP that "much more research needs to be done to identify specific sources of mercury emission, how the mercury travels through the environment and what its potential impacts might be."

What are they waiting for? If these new regulations fall short of protecting our environment from mercury's harmful effects, we won't know it until there is adequate research. And that should not be left to the mining industry to provide.