The U.S. Interior Department's Abandoned Mine Lands Program

Old mine workings are found throughout the Western United Sates on lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and private lands. Some of these mine workings date back to the late 1800s. There may be as many as 100,000 sites on lands administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The U.S. Department of the Interior has worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and western state governments to identify and prioritize these sites on Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service administered lands. This presentation will discuss the accomplishments we have made to date to clean up inactive and abandoned mine sites, focusing primarily on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.