Towns throughout the Rocky Mountain West that oppose mines near water supplies and scenic areas are backing efforts to revamp a federal law regulating hard-rock mining that's changed little since Ulysses S. Grant was president. A bill passed by the U.S. House in November would impose the first-ever federal royalties on gold, silver, copper and other metals mines, beef up environmental controls and give federal agencies the ability to say "No" to a mine that would irreparably harm the environment. "It's the last of the great dinosaurs from the 1800s," said Roger Flynn, director of the Colorado-based law firm Western Mining Action Project. Ray Carroll, a Pima County supervisor in Arizona, described the 1872 law "as having one arm tied behind your back." Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., supports mining reform that includes a so-called Good Samaritan provision that would protect groups or companies willing to clean up abandoned mines from legal liability under the federal Clean Water Act. There are about 500,000 abandoned mines nationwide, some dating to the 1800s, according to federal statistics. Lead, arsenic and other metals from some of the mines have contaminated lakes and streams. Since 1872, according to the Washington-based environmental group Earthworks, at least $245 billion worth of gold, silver, copper, uranium and other metals have been mined on public lands with nothing going to taxpayers. The 1872 law also allowed people to patent - or buy - public land for mining at the rock-bottom prices of $2.50 to $5 an acre. There's been a congressional moratorium on patents since the mid-1990s and the House bill would permanently eliminate them.

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