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California’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Act is one of the state’s most important laws to protect communities and the environment from the impacts of mining. Passed in 1975, SMARA requires mining projects to get a reclamation plan (for site cleanup after the mine closes) approved, and provide financial assurances to prevent abandoning open pits, drill sites, and access roads if they go bankrupt.
A new plan would allow certain industries to bypass full environmental review in California’s Imperial Valley. The plan is supposedly designed to encourage lithium extraction, but it does away with important permitting requirements for certain other industries. This greenwashing would harm the health of local communities, bulldoze over Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and worsen demands on the already overtaxed Colorado River, an important lifeline for residents and the economy.
“Just because it’s better than something else, doesn’t mean that it’s good for us.” Those words, spoken by an environmental justice organizer about the promises of lithium extraction in Imperial Valley, have stuck with me. As the lithium rush careens full steam ahead, all eyes have turned to Southern California, where companies hope to extract lithium dissolved in geothermal brine deep below the south shore of the Salton Sea.
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