Content orginally published by the Colorado Springs Gazette on December 14th, 2015

In the chambers of a former gold and silver mine, Congressman Doug Lamborn oversaw a field hearing Monday on one of several bills drafted in response to the Gold King Mine spill into the Animas River near Durango.

Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, said there was no better place than a mine reclaimed as a teaching and research tool to discuss a package of legislation intended to prevent contamination events.

"This is a historical first for Congress," Lamborn said of the hearing in the Edgar Mine, which is now the Colorado School of Mines' Experimental Mine.

Lamborn is the chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and he is also the sponsor of one of three bills designed to be a package response to the spill.

Lamborn's bill would limit the liability faced by those who own former mines. Known as a "good Samaritan" bill, the intent is to encourage the reclamation of contaminated former mines by limiting the financial liability a new owner may face.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) demands perfection and that, combined with unlimited liability, just makes it too big of a burden for any private foundation or corporation to ever take this on," Lamborn said.

But the bill being heard Monday was introduced by Rep. Cresent Hardy, R-Nevada. Hardy was in the mine sporting a hard hat along with his co-sponsor, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado.

That bill would redirect millions of dollars in fees that are being collected from active mining operations to fund the research and educational programs at engineering schools with mining programs. Those fees now are being used in the form of grants awarded by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

Under the proposed House Resolution 3734, 70 percent of the grants already being awarded by the SMCRA would go to fund research and other programs at mining schools.

There are only 14 mineral engineering programs in the U.S., down from 25 in 1982. Experts testified Monday that as baby boomers retire, these programs may run out of qualified faculty.

Perlmutter and Hardy's bill aims to curb that decline by ensuring more resources are available to the programs to promote both research at the facilities for tenure-track professors and to ensure the programs continue.

Lamborn noted that the EPA has only a few mineral engineers on staff and yet they oversee the reclamation projects of abandoned mines.

Hardy said the number of mining engineering programs is in "dangerous decline."

"At our regulatory agencies, the situation is equally serious," Hardy said, adding that the Nevada Division of Minerals has had to hire unqualified, entry-level staff.

"This is due to the absence of available graduates with degrees in mining and mineral engineering and may lead to more environmental disasters like the Gold King Mine spill," Hardy said.

Perlmutter represents a district that includes the Colorado School of Mines.

He said the bill is "badly needed" both to continue the development and extraction of natural resources in a responsible way and to assist with the cleanup of former mining sites.

All three bills must go before the full House Committee on Natural Resources and then to the floor of the House of Representatives for consideration.

Lamborn said he is optimistic that the package of bills strikes the right compromise between the needs of the industry and the concerns of environmentalists. There are also bills addressing the issue that originated in the Senate.