Editor's Note: Rep. Mark Udall will speak to workshop participants Oct. 21 at a noon luncheon at the Boulder Marriott Hotel. Udall will talk about the Abandoned Hardrock Mines Reclamation Act, which he is sponsoring. This event is not open to the public but media are invited to attend.
Pollution caused by abandoned hard rock mines and laws that hinder efforts to clean them will be addressed in two public events at the University of Colorado at Boulder Oct. 21 and Oct. 22.
The events are part of a three-day workshop on acid mine drainage hosted by the university's Center of the American West. Among the 30 participants will be mining industry executives, community residents, government officials and representatives of organizations like Trout Unlimited.
Under current laws, if property owners attempt to deal with acid drainage from a mine on their property, they assume a burden of liability for a mess they didn't create. Laws proposed to reduce this disincentive, known as "Good Samaritan laws," will be addressed in a public panel discussion on Oct. 22.
All events are organized by CU-Boulder Professor Joseph Ryan of the department of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering, and history Professor Patricia Limerick, chair of the Center of the American West. The two evening events on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22 are free and open to the public.
On Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150, Allan Comp, a renowned innovator in land reclamation in Pennsylvania's coal country, will talk about mine reclamation.
Comp has been described as "a relaxed blend of John Muir, John Dewey and John the Baptist." He is the founder and project leader of the groundbreaking art and reclamation organization in Pennsylvania's coal country called AMD&ART, which seeks to "artfully transform environmental liabilities into community assets."
Comp's talk will be on "Art, Community and History, and Science in Abandoned Mine Reclamation: The AMD&ART Project."
Comp works with the federal Office of Surface Mining as a "brownfield" project coordinator and holds a doctorate in history. His talk will highlight AMD&ART's work at the coal mine in Vintondale, Penn.
On Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150, a panel will address the topic " 'And Who Is My Neighbor?' Good Samaritans in the American West: A Panel on How One of Humanity's Best Ideas Applies to Abandoned Mines."
The panel will feature Limerick; Ryan; Elliott Ross-Bryant, a retired professor from the CU-Boulder religious studies department; Dr. Mike Iseman, a physician at National Jewish Hospital in Denver; and retired Rev. Robert Stuenkel of University Lutheran Chapel in Boulder.
The panelists will discuss the scriptural origins and historical context of the Good Samaritan parable, the parable in Christian belief and practice, and stories of some forgotten Good Samaritans from the region's past. They will discuss the meaning of these perspectives for the practical challenges of reckoning with the heritage of mining from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Center of the American West will publish a report on the findings of the workshop.
For more information contact the CU-Boulder Center of the American West at (303) 492-4879 or visit http://www.centerwest.org/.
