URGENT -- SENATE BILL 141
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Hello Defenders,
Below, please find a message sent by the Clean Water Alliance, of which we are a part. It is urgent that the following actions occur on Monday, and again, if you can, attend the Hearing on Tuesday in Pierre. Remember, they are on Central time.
Thank you.
Charmaine White Face, Coordinator
Defenders of the Black Hills
PO Box 2003
Rapid City, SD 57709
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Please do two things to help pass Senate Bill 141, which would increase the amount of bond that a mining company would have to put up before it started mining. The bond would be used to pay for clean-up of a mine site, if the company went bankrupt or left the state without cleaning up after itself. This bill would apply to Powertech Uranium's proposed project. You must act no later than Monday afternoon!
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First, e-mail or call the members of the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee. Say you are FOR Senate Bill 141. As citizens of South Dakota, we are already paying for mine clean-up for other companies that have not left enough of a bond with the state. An example is the Brohm gold mine, which is a Superfund site that we will be paying for in perpetuity (Superfund sites are designated as the nation's worst hazardous waste sites by the federal government). We do not want to pay to clean up after any other mining companies who take their profits and leave us with the bill. The members of the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee are listed here: http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2013/CommitteeMembers.aspx?Committee=3 You can click on each member's name and call or e-mail them from their personal page.
Second, go to Pierre for the hearing on this bill this Tuesday, January 29. The hearing will be at 10:00 AM Central Time. It will be before the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee. If you want to carpool, please let me know and I'll put people in communication. If you are carpooling, the Clean Water Alliance can help with gas expenses.
Please be sure to send e-mails. And please seriously consider going to Pierre. We need to show Sen. Adelstein, the main sponsor of this bill, that people who oppose Powertech also support his efforts.
We will also need to get people to Pierre when there are hearings on Senate Bills 148, 149, and 150. These should all be heard on the same day. We may get as little as one day's notice. So please be prepared to attend on short notice. This will be critical to our bills.
Your efforts are paying off in Pierre! Legislators and the Governor are feeling the heat. Please keep it up!!
Let me know if you have questions.
Lilias
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"Defenders of the Black Hills is a group of volunteers without racial or tribal boundaries whose mission is to preserve, protect, and restore the environment of the 1851 and 1868 Treaty Territories, Treaties made between the United States and the Great Sioux Nation."
Speaking about radioactive fallout, the late President John F. Kennedy said,
"Even then, the number of children and grandchildren with cancer in their bones, with leukemia in their blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem statistically small to some, in comparison with natural health hazards. But this is not a natural health hazard and it is not a statistical issue. The loss of even one human life, or the malformation of even one baby who may be born long after we are gone, should be of concern to us all. Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be indifferent."
July 26, 1963 upon signing the ban on above ground nuclear tests
