Mine tailings dams aren't regulated by any federal agency and only sometimes substantively by states, but environmental damage from the Mount Polley mine's dam failure in Canada show these facilities need oversight, two House Democrats said May 19. "Given that tailings dams must store mine waste in perpetuity, and that failure of these dams can result in catastrophic ecological damage costing billions of dollars to remediate, these facilities warrant rigorous review and stringent safety standards," Reps. Raul Gri-jalva (D-Ariz.) and Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) said in the May 19 letter to the heads of two federal environment agencies.
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