The former Bullfrog gold mine, above, is cleaned up and ready to host a renewable energy project. So far, there are no takers.

By Scott Streater
Forest Magazine, Fall 2009

It might not look like much, but the scrubby remains of the Bullfrog gold mine in Beatty, Nevada, could one day help lead a revolutionary expansion of renewable energy.

The eighty-one-acre parcel northwest of Las Vegas consists of weeds and a few old buildings. But it’s flat, fenced in and, perhaps most important, already connected to the electric power grid—ideal to house a cluster of solar panels in a region rated to have some of the best sun-power potential in the country.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the Bullfrog gold mine site to serve as a pilot project in an emerging effort to explore reusing abandoned hardrock mines on public lands across the West to house renewable energy projects like wind farms, solar arrays and geothermal power plants. A handful of local developers have joined the EPA in marketing the site for its solar energy potential since Barrick Gold, Inc. donated the land to the Beatty Economic Development Corp. four years ago.

The idea has tremendous potential.

The number of abandoned mine sites in the United States is hard to pin down because agencies inventory sites differently. The Department of Interior estimates as many as 240,000 abandoned mine sites are located on federally managed land. And the EPA estimates there are a total of 480,000 potential sites covering some 15 million acres, ranging from abandoned coal mines to Superfund hazardous waste sites.

“We have data that our cleanup goals have been achieved on about 850,000 acres,” says David Lloyd, director of the EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization in Washington, D.C. “It leaves open many potential opportunities to develop renewable energy on these sites.”

As President Obama and Congress continue to push for an unprecedented expansion of renewable energy, the proposal to repurpose old mines is garnering attention. The EPA has developed maps showing opportunities to site renewable energy on contaminated lands and mining sites in each state.

One of the biggest obstacles to expanding the country’s renewable energy infrastructure is opposition from environmental groups that challenge proposed wind and solar projects, contending they destroy wildlife habitat and plant life, according to federal regulators and industry observers.

In the Mojave Desert in southern California and western Nevada, for example, dozens of solar projects have been proposed on Bureau of Land Management land. One such project is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System proposed by Oakland, California-based BrightSource Energy Inc. It would produce enough electricity to power about 140,000 homes, but it also would cover 4,065 acres, threatening habitat for the desert tortoise and rare plants like the Rusby’s desert-mallow and the Mojave milkweed. The proposal has met with stiff opposition from the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.

But abandoned mine sites are ideal for this use because the land has been disturbed, power lines are in place, and “it makes sense to make use of them,” said Jeff Parsons, a senior attorney with the Western Mining Action Project.

The exploration is encouraged in a mining law reform bill sponsored by Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, which lists “the generation of renewable energy” as an acceptable reuse of old mine sites.

But the implementation is still in its infancy. Only a handful of modest projects are operating, mostly consisting of a few wind turbines on old mine sites and landfills.

Steve Herbert, president of the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs, which was established by the Interior Department to reclaim sites damaged by coal mining activity, says so far all he’s heard is “informal ramblings” about the idea. He does, however, add that he’s heard enough talk that he believes “it’s going to gain traction here in the next few months.”

Mining companies are starting to approach state governments about the possibility of using abandoned mine sites, or even portions of still-operating mines, for renewable energy projects.

In Wyoming, an operating mine has inquired about erecting wind turbines on the site, with the goal of powering the mine operation, says Rick Chancellor with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Abandoned Mine Land Division.

In New Mexico, where there are an estimated 4,000 abandoned mine sites, two large mining companies want to build large solar arrays to sell for profit to the power grid, says Bill Brancard, director of the Mining and Mineral Division of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

“We are certainly willing to look at ideas where companies have a real proposal to turn portions of mine sites into reuse for various kinds of industrial facilities,” he says.

Meanwhile, in Beatty they’re looking for an energy company interested in the old Bullfrog site. Albert Verrilli, director of the Beatty Economic Development Corp., believes it’s just a matter of time before the land is leased to an energy company. “There’s a lot of solar activity up here, and this is a prime zone for it,” he says.

According to federal records, the EPA has spent $2.2 billion over the last decade on mine cleanup projects, and it’s not enough. The agency has estimated it could cost $50 billion to clean up all the mess left behind at these sites.

The old mines are also a safety concern. A study last year by the Interstate Mining Compact Commission found that nearly one out of five abandoned mines poses some sort of safety risk.

These concerns could be addressed by companies that are willing to reclaim the sites for renewable energy.

But there are many issues that must first be worked out. The level of remediation that will be required before the sites are suitable to host wind farms, solar arrays and geothermal power plants will vary depending on a number of factors. In some cases, a full cleanup may not be necessary, according to Lloyd, the EPA brownfields official.

“A solar array on a contaminated site might require less cleanup because you would have the placement of those solar arrays on the ground and there’s some capping you could do,” he says. “That would offset the amount of hardcore cleanup that would have to be done because you would not have the risk of exposure and risk to human health.”

Environmentalists say they are concerned that any plan to reuse abandoned mine sites require the sites to first be cleaned. “You cannot let the companies off the hook on first cleaning the mine sites up,” says Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, a watchdog group. “The devil’s in the details, of course. If the mining companies clean up the mess but leave the infrastructure in place, that’s a good situation with some real advantages.”

Herbert said he believes these types of issues will be worked out over time. “I think there are some definite upsides to the whole idea, and I’m sure there are some downsides to it, too. But in my mind the upsides outweigh the downsides.”

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