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For quite a while now we’ve been wrestling with how to assure “financial assurance” so that silica sand operators won’t shut down and leave the area looking like the moonscape.  Obviously this was not done successfully on the Range where mines closed, leaving barren piles, abandoned buildings and sites, and pits overfilling with water, we need to learn from that mess.  So we’ve been talking about it, even to the extent of getting reclamation legislation, which in my mind is in large part to assure “financial assurance” to enable the ability to do reclamation:

Sec. 105. RULES; SILICA SAND.

(b) The commissioner of natural resources shall adopt rules pertaining to the reclamation of silica sand mines. The rulemaking is exempt from Minnesota Statutes, section 14.125.

Add to that the DNR head’s very scary statements regarding PolyMet mining:

“If we ever get to a point in time where (pollution from the PolyMet site) can’t be handled, (it’ll be) because humanity changed, because World War Z came along and zombies took over. As long as there are people, there’ll be people to fix it,” Landwehr said.

The people who destroyed it are the ones who need to fix it, not the “As long as there are people, there’ll be people to fix it…”

So how to do it?  Well, it turns out there is foundational language already in the rules for landfills — something we can use as a starting point.  DOH!  Why is this just coming out now, in the EQB’s DRAFT?  Yes, it’s good to know (sorry, folks, I do not know what’s in every rule in the state) (and apparently I’m not the only one!), but shouldn’t this have been brought out early on when all the local governments started wrestling with this?

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITIES
FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS
7035.2665 SCOPE.
7035.2685 COST ESTIMATES FOR CLOSURE, POSTCLOSURE CARE, AND CORRECTIVE ACTION.
7035.2695 FINANCIAL ASSURANCES REQUIRED.
7035.2705 TRUST FUND.
7035.2715 TRUST FUND FOR UNRELATED SITES.
7035.2720 DEDICATED LONG-TERM CARE TRUST FUNDS.
7035.2725 SURETY BOND GUARANTEEING PAYMENT INTO A TRUST FUND.
7035.2735 SURETY BOND GUARANTEEING PERFORMANCE.
7035.2745 LETTER OF CREDIT.
7035.2750 SELF-INSURANCE.
7035.2751 PROPOSALS FOR NONSTANDARDIZED FINANCIAL ASSURANCE MECHANISMS; FACILITIES INITIALLY PERMITTED AFTER JANUARY 1, 2011.
7035.2755 USE OF MULTIPLE FINANCIAL ASSURANCE MECHANISMS.
7035.2765 USE OF FINANCIAL ASSURANCE MECHANISM FOR MULTIPLE FACILITIES.
7035.2775 RELEASE OF OWNER OR OPERATOR FROM FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS.
7035.2785 USE OF A SINGLE MECHANISM FOR FINANCIAL ASSURANCE OF CORRECTIVE ACTION, CLOSURE, AND POSTCLOSURE CARE.
7035.2795 INCAPACITY OF OWNERS OR OPERATORS, GUARANTORS, OR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
7035.2805 LANGUAGE REQUIRED FOR FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS.

doh

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