El medio ambiente en la minería

73 WlLUAM B. SCHMIOT to follow the chain ofliability lo force those liable to either correet the problem or pay the cost ofsuch correetive aedon. Liability under the Superfund Act is joint and severa} with the consequence that anyone who has a significant degree of liability is theoreticaIly responsible Cor all of the cost of cleanup. Liability aIso f10ws to aIl successors in interest to the original problem causer, regardless of their knowledge or laek oí knowledge of the problem. Because of the natureof the statule, the administrative procedures tend to be elaborate to ensure that the Government can show a future court that it has taken all reasonable steps to give the affected parties evezy right under the law. Eaeh formalized step in the process adds time and costo Neither approaeh can be recommended without qualification. The SMCRA approach lacks standards for reclamation and, because ofits lackofconcemed about who caused the problem, imposes a penalty on the innocent and guilty alike. Superfund, as indicated, tends to breed elaborate and arguably unfair solutions to problems that warrant faster action. Despite these deficiencies, there is something lo be leamed from these and other approaehes for tbose struggling witb the problem of correeting past problems. V. THE STRUCl'URE OF "THE INDUSTRY" Qne of the problems in dealing with the issue of the impact of regulatioDS on the mining industry or any other industrial sector is that generalizations fail to account for the diverse company personalities and operating approaches. In the U. S. we see a wide range ofcompany response to regulations that depend on the rmancial situation, the philosophies of their managers, and the values that they try to instill in their workers. Regulatozy constraints fall hardest on those small and medium sized com– panies that are least equipped to deal with the new constraints and modes of operation. Larger, older companies with significant investment in ~Ider tech– nology and a legacy of old environmental problems are aIso hard hit by these regulatory changes. Most of the U. S. regulatozy programs are aIso framed to ¡nelude a technícal assistance component, often ineluding a research and development activity, to help ease the introduction of new requirements. There is sometimes a statutozy exemption granted to the vezy small operators to either impose a less stringent set of requirements of the law. In many cases, 8uch exelusions prove counter-productive and are subsequentJy eliminated. As a result, regulatozy changes, if they are accompanied by a reasonably strong enforcemenl program, result in a restructuring of the industry and the elimina– tion of the marginal operations. A predictable consequence of this rationaliza– tion of the industry is lhat the pool of the orphan environmental problemswill