Industry and environmental groups are bolstering their opposing arguments on EPA's draft Superfund financial assurance rule for the hardrock mining sector, with industry contending EPA failed to meet legal mandates to show such requirements are warranted and environmentalists stressing the need for safeguards in a time of dwindling cleanup budgets and increased waste volumes. "To conclude that today's mining industry presents the level of risk that justifies an expansive, costly and duplica-tive regulation, EPA had to ignore modern mining practices, existing state and federal environmental, reclamation and financial assurance requirements, and a sensible reading of the law," National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn says in a July 12 press release that accompanied the group's 440 pages of comments.
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