Letters to the Editor for March 23, 2009

Bill would hurt miners, others

To the editor:

Instead of protecting property rights of ranchers who are surface owners on split estate lands, House Bill 3453 in the Oregon Legislature actually weakens Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) regulations, and adds a second state agency, Department of State Lands, to administer mining. This situation will work to confuse the regulations currently in place, and leave the surface owners more vulnerable, not less, to impacts from mining. HB 3453 is not necessary, would be costly to taxpayers, and it is not legal.

Protection of surface owner rights on both split estate lands (patented lands where the surface was sold to another party some time in the past) and on Stock Raising Homestead Act lands where the 1872 mining law applies, is a function of DOGAMI. HB 3453 involves a new tier of mining administration under the Department of State Lands. One thing Oregon does not need is more state bureaucrats and more taxpayer dollars expended for nothing.

Also, HB 3453 is not legal, since mineral patents are federal grants rather than simple deeds, and these grants guarantee the owner of the minerals a federal “bundle of rights” which include the right to access, mine and occupy. Each rancher who owns the surface on split estate lands, has a deed that clearly states they bought only the surface, and the owner of the mineral estate retains the right to mine their private minerals.

Oregon’s Attorney General researched this issue in 2008. According to the AG, the mineral estate prevails, and the surface owner cannot stop the owner of the mineral estate from extracting the minerals.

HB 3453 will cost Oregon taxpayers in many ways, including loss of mining jobs while lawsuits against the state are undertaken. There will be no benefits, not even to the surface owners of split estate lands that the bill purports to protect. All they will end end doing, is paying more tax monies for new state employees, and paying for the lawsuits that will surely follow if this bill were to pass.

Ed Hardt

Baker City