• Clean Water Act
  • Identifies those waters not attaining water-quality standards
  • Sets priorities for addressing identified pollution problems
  • Establishes a “total-maximum-daily-load” for each identified water body and pollutant to attain water-quality standards
  • Enforces anti-degradation rules

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
  • Gives the EPA authority over operation sites using or generating hazardous substances: requires permits and costly transportation, storage, and disposal sites
  • Note: Mercury is exempt 98% of the time as a hazardous waste under the mining act

• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
  
  • Gives the EPA authority to perform removal and remedial actions for releases of hazardous substances
    
  • Concentrations above 23 mg/kg require risk assessment to determine whether the chemical poses a threat in its given set of conditions
    

• Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
  
  • Mandates a toxic-release inventory
    
  • Mandates annual reports from any industry releasing 10 lb of Hg per year
    
  • California State Regulations: Proposition 65 of 1986; Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975; Porter Cologne Water Quality Control Act of 1970; Water Code, secs. 13397-13398.9; Fish and Game Code, sec. 5650, Health and Safety Code, sec. 105,705; Public Resources Code, secs. 2,755-2,764, Health and Safety Code, sec. 25208
    

• Surface Mining and Reclamation Act
  
  • Requires new and existing mines to have approved reclamation plans backed by financial assurances sufficient to cover the costs of reclamation
    

• Porter Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Water Code, sec. 13000)
  
  • Protects California’s surface, coastal, and ground water
    
  • Provides guidance for NPDES, wastewater-discharge permits, and stormwater discharges
    
  • Implementation focuses on the establishment of a framework which ensures that appropriate practices or technologies are implemented (Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, secs. 13241, 13242), including those elements necessary to meet federal TMDL requirements
    

• Water Code, secs. 13397-13398.9
  
  • Provides liability protection to private or public agencies with approved remediation plans for cleanup of abandoned mine sites.
    

• California Fish and Game Code, sec. 5650
  
  • Protects fish, plant, and bird life against injurious substances. (Fishing is a right protected by the California Constitution, art. 1, sec. 25)
    

• Health and Safety Code, sec. 105705
  
  • Permits County Boards of Supervisors to order coverings or fencing around abandoned mine excavations; gives the local community control over potentially hazardous conditions
    

• Public Resources Code, secs. 2755-2764
  
  • Mandates general and specific plan amendments when urban expansion incorporates mine lands; requires adjustments in zoning, land use, and conservation elements.
    

• Toxic Pits Cleanup Act of 1984 (Health and Safety Code, secs. 25208 et seq.)
  
  • Grants the State Water Resources Control Board authority to protect waters of the State from hazardous liquid contamination from surface impoundments